preservation Alternatives to the Dehydrator??

nastafarian · May 21, 2015

Does anyone know of any decent ways to dry peppers without the use of a dehydrator? I was thinking about tying them up and hanging them vertically to try. Mostly with annuum but maybe some baccatum varieties as well. I want to make some decorative pepper bunches similar to braided garlic bunches that I can give as edible gifts...

sirex · May 21, 2015

If you tie them up to dry you have to be in an area with low humidity.

That is a no go for me here in Central Florida.

juanitos · May 21, 2015

you can do it in the oven or on the grill.. just use really low temp for oven, and use indirect heal on grill. Not as efficient as dehydrator though.

or you can leave them in a plastic tote/bag with some holes and a fan on it, in the sun = dehydrator.

hogleg · May 21, 2015

Sounds like you want to make Ristras. They use certain thin skinned peppers. And its usually done in extremely hot and dry climates.

CAPCOM · May 21, 2015

Convection oven, take a couple of hours

SmokenFire · May 21, 2015

I've taken a needle and string through the stems and hung the peppers to dry from curtain rods in the guestroom. Left the ceiling fan on/curtains drawn so they'd get sun. Took about 5-6 weeks IIRC.

juanitos · May 21, 2015

any variety with thick walls will mold up before it dries, if you want to do ristras u gotta get the right kind of peppers.

nastafarian · May 22, 2015

Thanks guys, i'll experiment with these methods.

I'm growing some Bih Jolokia, supposedly they have very thin walls. I'll try with those first!

JoynersHotPeppers · May 22, 2015

nastafarian said:
Thanks guys, i'll experiment with these methods.

I'm growing some Bih Jolokia, supposedly they have very thin walls. I'll try with those first!

I have NEVER had any c. chinense dry without issues naturally.

LUCKYDOG · May 22, 2015

Cut in half and put in the oven at lowest temp and crack the oven door. Beware if doing this inside your house it will be like someone pepper sprayed the hell out of it. You can try the grill at lowest temp indirect on upper rack make sure temps dont go over 120 -140

nastafarian · May 22, 2015

JoynersHotPeppers said:
I have NEVER had any c. chinense dry without issues naturally.

Good to know! You may have saved me from wasting 100 Bih Jolokia peppers.

juanitos · May 22, 2015

i was always sketched out by ristras / drying outside in the open.

How do you know bugs don't crawl up in there? or a bird poop on it? etc

Suezotiger · May 25, 2015

You could get a box fan and clean furnace filters. Put the peppers between filters and bungee them up against the fan. Put it in the sun so it's warm and let it go for a while

AJ Drew · May 26, 2015

Give a google to solar dehydrator. You will find complete plans and instructions. Some of them are made from all things likely on hand like the box method mentioned here.

ColdSmoke · May 26, 2015

why not just buy a dehydrator? They are relatively inexpensive especially if you're dealing with hundreds of super hots.

Geonerd · May 26, 2015

Tossing them in a saucepan on an electric heating plate does the trick in a day or two.

nastafarian · May 26, 2015

Well, I have a Salton dehydrator but it's not the best out there. It takes about 16 hours to dry 4 trays of peppers, but i have to cut them in two.

I was trying to get two birds stoned at once: easy way out of drying peppers from 50 plants, and also make some ristras to give as gifts.

I'll check out the DIY solar dehydrator, sounds like a fun project. Thanks!

ColdSmoke · May 26, 2015

nastafarian said:
Well, I have a Salton dehydrator but it's not the best out there. It takes about 16 hours to dry 4 trays of peppers, but i have to cut them in two.

I was trying to get two birds stoned at once: easy way out of drying peppers from 50 plants, and also make some ristras to give as gifts.

I'll check out the DIY solar dehydrator, sounds like a fun project. Thanks!

Nice Ricky