sounds good..yea, i was thinking, if there is a peppery smell and vapor that stings your eyes, it's also hitting the jalapenos. anyway, just got back from the store, got a nice fat boston butt (~5.5 lbs. boneless), and a handful of habs (orange-yellow), some jalapenos, and a few serranos. gonna get to work slicing them up momentarily and then get them going.
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preservation About dehydrating.......
- Thread starter JavaScottC
- Start date
dehydrating
Hi, I've been dehydrating for a month now and it takes approximately 24 to 48 hours for complete drying. I have a five level unit and after one day I rotate the levels (top to bottom e.t.c. . real small thin peppers are done sooner than lets say habanero's which take the full two days. I do slice mine in half to facilitate drying. My unit is one setting (ON) and has openings on the top which states quicker drying time if fully open. Well good luck and let it burn baby!!
cRAYZy in California
Hi, I've been dehydrating for a month now and it takes approximately 24 to 48 hours for complete drying. I have a five level unit and after one day I rotate the levels (top to bottom e.t.c. . real small thin peppers are done sooner than lets say habanero's which take the full two days. I do slice mine in half to facilitate drying. My unit is one setting (ON) and has openings on the top which states quicker drying time if fully open. Well good luck and let it burn baby!!
cRAYZy in California
I can't help adding that my smoked red jalapeno powder is worth about 50 times it's weight in gold. I can't make enough.
Unsmoked is great stuff too, don't get me wrong!
I just halve the japs and put them in the smoker for 1/2 hour or so. I then dehydrate them and grind as usual. Talk about an interesting aroma from the dehydrator!!!!Good god! wit da git down.
Unsmoked is great stuff too, don't get me wrong!
I just halve the japs and put them in the smoker for 1/2 hour or so. I then dehydrate them and grind as usual. Talk about an interesting aroma from the dehydrator!!!!Good god! wit da git down.
I have the same dehydrator as you, it's a good unit. Mine, when I had a garden use to run almost 24/7, n never had a problem with it. When I was drying peppers, I'd keep it running full time on high, n beleive me I didn't bother putting the peppers on the trays nice n pretty. I filled them trays, big time.
But when I am dehydrating Jerky, I set it on a lamp timer.
But when I am dehydrating Jerky, I set it on a lamp timer.
well i had them going for a while..stopped them since i'm going to sleep soon...have pics of before and since...just lazy cause i'm drunk and not staying up much longer. they were going since about 4pm till about 10 or 11pm. really dry, but i think i'll run it for another few just to make sure there is no moisture. is there any danger of running them too long? i figure there isn't and you just get rid of all the moisture.
edit, i can barely recognize the jalapenos from the serranos, but they are all pretty damn dry.
edit, i can barely recognize the jalapenos from the serranos, but they are all pretty damn dry.
heres a few pics of before and after.
i tried to ground up the habs today with a mortar and pestle, but they seemed to be resisting being crushed..so i threw them back in the dehydrator..haven't messed with the since, gonna try again tomorrow.
i tried to ground up the habs today with a mortar and pestle, but they seemed to be resisting being crushed..so i threw them back in the dehydrator..haven't messed with the since, gonna try again tomorrow.
couldn't fit this last one.
if you look at the first pic, it seems there were two types of habaneros in there. some were more "lantern" shaped, others seemed squashed and more of a stereotypical ufo shape hah.
the jalapenos and serranos are all so close in size, i might just mix them all together for one powder. i can kinda determine the difference..but some are tough. the smallest most slender ones are the serranos.
if you look at the first pic, it seems there were two types of habaneros in there. some were more "lantern" shaped, others seemed squashed and more of a stereotypical ufo shape hah.
the jalapenos and serranos are all so close in size, i might just mix them all together for one powder. i can kinda determine the difference..but some are tough. the smallest most slender ones are the serranos.
to hand grind in a mortar and pestle they need to be really really dry. at least when you find you can grind them by hand you know they should store ok and the mix won't clump together due to the moisture.
If I were you, (and I was in this case, I have a mortar and pestle), I'd go out and buy a cheap coffee grinder. I spent $20 on a Krups, but I will be using it for a long time to come. So easy, you throw chips in, grind until powdered-simple. Then straight from your grinder, via a funnel, into the glass shaker jars before mentioned. Makes it a lot easier than grinding them by hand, and much more uniform.
Have fun.
Have fun.
i let them go all day today, and when i squeezed one piece together, it broke. tomorrow i'll either run it a little more, or just try grinding them. we have an electric grinder, just didn't want to make it laced with peppers for other people. 
seems much easier to break apart though, so they might already be ready to go.
seems much easier to break apart though, so they might already be ready to go.
I love homemade stuff - esp when I make it! you'll be telling your mates "yeah I made this, what do you think?". I bet they'll be impressed as all hell!
VTpepper - I dont know the reason why they do that, but I only dry red chiles from now on. I've tried green cherry chiles & hot wax & some other kind that wasnt red. they all turned out a nasty color with a nasty taste. orange habs dry great. its something about yellow & green chiles IMO they're not appealing once dried.
so far i've only used orange habs, jalapenos, and serranos. i agree with chilehunter, the orange habs turned out great..the green ones didn't look very good. on the other hand, if you are grinding them into powder or flakes, they won't look like that for long.
btw xgraf - what happened to the placenta in your habs???
you mean the internals? i cut them out. i did throw a few seeds into the mix hoping they'd stick to the peppers as they dried out..but for the most part, the innards were tossed.
when i make chili, i make sure to save all the seeds..but with the dehydrator, i wasn't sure how well it would work out, so i just tossed most of them. was a fairly small run anyway..being my initial pepper dehydrating attempt and all. oddly enough..they were in for a long time, though they'd be good and ready for the pestle and mortar, but they still seemed to be tough (mainly the skin) and resisted being ground down. ground up ok..but was a lot of work for little results. i'm just gonna finely dice them all up to make some hab flakes instead of powder.
when i make chili, i make sure to save all the seeds..but with the dehydrator, i wasn't sure how well it would work out, so i just tossed most of them. was a fairly small run anyway..being my initial pepper dehydrating attempt and all. oddly enough..they were in for a long time, though they'd be good and ready for the pestle and mortar, but they still seemed to be tough (mainly the skin) and resisted being ground down. ground up ok..but was a lot of work for little results. i'm just gonna finely dice them all up to make some hab flakes instead of powder.
I'm gonna have to get a digital camera, n take pics for u people next time I dehydrate peppers. I usually dehydrate about 20 pounds of
peppers in 1 setting. First of all, I thin slice almost all peppers in the food processer. I can destem, wash, n slice about 1 busshel in under 3 hours, plus during that time the peppers to be dried are being put onto dehydrator at the same time. There are some habanero's that I dry whole, I do this for some friends that like to follow a recipe, n sometimes a recipe calls for 2, or maybe 3 habaneros. A whole habanero being the measurement.There are others that I just cut in half, these I use only for my pepper infused oils. I have 12 trays for my dehydrator.
peppers in 1 setting. First of all, I thin slice almost all peppers in the food processer. I can destem, wash, n slice about 1 busshel in under 3 hours, plus during that time the peppers to be dried are being put onto dehydrator at the same time. There are some habanero's that I dry whole, I do this for some friends that like to follow a recipe, n sometimes a recipe calls for 2, or maybe 3 habaneros. A whole habanero being the measurement.There are others that I just cut in half, these I use only for my pepper infused oils. I have 12 trays for my dehydrator.
xgrafcorex said:
you're obviously not after hot powder then as the 'internals' are what gives the heat - less the seeds of course. next time, why not try this - still cut out the internals and dry out the placental tissue with the seeds attached. when dry, put on a pair of rubber gloves and pick each piece of placenta up and hold in your fingers like you would a miniature PS2/XBOX controller and 'rub' the seeds off. you will be left with a pile of seeds and a pile of extremely hot hab (or whatever) membrane. this can be ground down and will be the hottest powder you've ever had. I did this a few months ago with a batch of birdseyes and it was very hot!
so when dehydrating my habanero peppers do i need to cut off the stems , can we just wash em up set them on the trays and 24 hours later ( or when dry ) pull them off ? . I did dry a bunch this way but they kinda dried funny looking ( strange orangy brown is this normal ? ) and i figured they were no good so we tossed them . now near the end of season we have literally 20 or so pds of peppers and wanna get alot of powder and flakes so any tips or advice is greatly appreciated and i have been reading over these posts and am just clarifying some of these questions
thanks so much for your time
thanks so much for your time