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Air drying peppers

B

bman900

So I don't have the money for fancy drying machines and am fine waiting a few weeks for my peppers to dry but I haz a few questions. Last year I tried drying whole peppers without making a cut in them and I remember after 2 weeks they still felt wet and mushy to the touch. I was afraid that they will go bad so I cut a little of the end of them and they dried out within a week. Now I have some nice peppers this year and don't want to cut of the end to dry them, so I just want to make sure that the mushy thing is normal.
 
Also any other suggestion in air drying peppers?
 
Choose your peppers for drying.
I have only air/sun dried peppers ever , in our arid climate.
I only dry cayenne ,paprika and guajillo.
For the rest, you will need to put a fan on it.

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Not going to hurt to put a slit down them.   I've air dried thai chilis a bunch, just by tying them up by the stems and letting them hang out.  Takes a bit of time but they get nice and crispy dry, no signs of mold or other bad stuff.
 
What kind of peppers are you drying?  
 
hotjohn said:
Not going to hurt to put a slit down them.   I've air dried thai chilis a bunch, just by tying them up by the stems and letting them hang out.  Takes a bit of time but they get nice and crispy dry, no signs of mold or other bad stuff.
 
What kind of peppers are you drying?  
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Habanero, Reaper and Tabasco.
 
Well they do have "Carrefour" which are the equivalent of walmart
 
There is surely amazon and ebay too
 
 
 
If you still dont want them there is some solar dehydrator on sale
 
Something else that might help is a bath including lemon juice or citric acid.  Give it a google for proportions.  It is so week that you do not taste it, but it does help against spoilage.  Some folk advise blanching them in the solution also. 
 
for my small pods instead of cutting them in half or slitting them, I just tear off the calyx and let the moisture escape from there. So far, with the small peppers at least, no problems. Dries pretty quickly, though cutting in half would be faster.
 
Is there a reason not to just dry them in direct sunlight? I was thinking maybe sunlight all day then very low dehydrator temp at night, back in the sun during day until dry, then store, mainly to save on electricity. I planned to use a needle and fishing twine and thread them on and hang like washing lines.
 
So, looking at my electric oven, the lowest degree I can set it is 50 degrees Celsius. Is this okay? Also I am assuming I should turn on that feature that circulates the air?

charlesquik said:
Well they do have "Carrefour" which are the equivalent of walmart
 
There is surely amazon and ebay too
 
 
 
If you still dont want them there is some solar dehydrator on sale
Click to expand...
 
No amazon, ebay or walmart here :( Carrefour does exist but you are correct, we have dehydrators on sale for around 50 dollars but when the average wage here is 500 bucks per month, 50 bucks is alot.
 
120*f +/- is fine. I use a cheap wire rack so peppers like small cayennes dont fall thru. With the convection fan they should dry even and quicker. Crack the door if you need too. Go by the aroma of peppers. And yes, you will get fumes. Turn off ceiling fan and turn on exhaust or fan blowing out in window.
 
Ah yes makes sense, now I think about the fatalli I dried in the sun to harvest some seeds was very dull and pale. seeds worked great though :)
 
dragonsfire said:
Egyptians used Salt to create mummies :)
Get a bag of rocksalt and cover them and see what happens, salt will preserve them. brush off salt afterwards.
Click to expand...
 
LOL, I am gonna try this.
 
What kind of weather do you get in Romania bman900?
 
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