-
General food and cooking questions, discussion, and recipes. To blog your food or to create (or post in) a community food thread, please post in Post Your Eats!
Best way to dry pods?
- Thread starter b3rnd
- Start date
sicman said:
I've tried using a straw, but that was pretty hard! How do you do it?
The Hot Pepper said:
Thanks THP! I've used the oven method before but I found the taste changes too much. I dried several varieties and they all tasted the same after drying in the oven. I'll give the light bulb one a go though!
If you don't have a dehydrator, and your oven runs too hot...you would either have to constantly alternate the oven from low to off(which would probably be a pain in the ass), or set the oven to low, and crack it open. But you would probably only want to do that during the winter, so if you want to freeze a bunch of pods, you can try that later.
Buy a $30 dehydrator
karoo said:I only sun dry , yes I don't have a dehydrator and I live in a arid area with 36-45 degree Celsius summer afternoons.
Choose your peppers for drying , like Guajillo, Cayenne and thin walled Baccatums like lemon Drops.
IMG_20170213_133457.jpg
If I tried that it would look like this:
Based on years of posts here I can tell you, for budget, Nesco is the brand, and top, Excalibur is the brand (unless going stainless steel then LEM).
So here is the Nesco, and looks like Lowe's has the best price. Maybe you live by one. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Nesco-5-Tray-Food-Dehydrator/4759694
So here is the Nesco, and looks like Lowe's has the best price. Maybe you live by one. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Nesco-5-Tray-Food-Dehydrator/4759694
Ah!
Here u go
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Food-Dryer-Dehydrator-temperature/dp/B008MPBK8G/ref=nav_signin?ie=UTF8&qid=1499281490&sr=8-1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Andrew-James-Dehydrator-Adjustable-Temperature/dp/B00FF97SJ2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1499282015&sr=8-2
Also check your local chains, Aki, is one?
Here u go
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Food-Dryer-Dehydrator-temperature/dp/B008MPBK8G/ref=nav_signin?ie=UTF8&qid=1499281490&sr=8-1
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Andrew-James-Dehydrator-Adjustable-Temperature/dp/B00FF97SJ2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1499282015&sr=8-2
Also check your local chains, Aki, is one?
I've got an electric turkey roaster that works well. Just spread them out and set the dial near the bottom of the temperature range. Leave the top off, of course. ~120f+ is enough to dry pods in a day or two, particularly if you split them lengthwise. A pan and electric hot plate will do much the same...
There's some oven tips with keeping the door cracked open to not only reduce heat but displace humidity. Try it out on sheet pans, set the oven to 200 or less if possible, and crack door. Cutting in half reduces dry time, plus allows you to deseed.
Thanks for all the tips people! Aki is indeed one of our local chains, I will go check if they pack what I need! The oven thing I really can't try in this house, as we have an old gas oven. Very hard to control the temperature in it. We burn stuff all the time hehe. I've tried it with the oven door opened a bit back in Holland, and it worked fine except the taste part.
The taste can be off if too hot because you are cooking them as well as drying so yeah.
Yep, that's why I don't prefer the oven method. It's hard to regulate the temperature if the oven doesn't go low enough. It (the knob) went to 60 degrees C (140 F) and I had no idea what it was inside with the door opened a bit. Hope I can find a nice dryer! A friend of mine back home in the Netherlands makes jerky so I know he has a high quality one. Maybe he'll let me use it when I come back. Not that that helps me now 
