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powder-flake Best drying/powdering varieties?

U

UltraZelda64

My typical method of preservation of hot peppers so far has been freezing. However, I have messed around a bit with drying and powdering; I've powdered Tabasco, Habanero, and my "Mystery" pepper from last year. By the way, in case anyone cares, I posted about the mystery pepper on the forums last year:

http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/17120-mystery-pepper-anyone-know-what-this-is/

...and while I didn't get any responses as to exactly what it was, I found a pepper just recently on ChilePlants.com (where I got the mystery plant) that looks very similar, if not the same... the Peruvian Serlano:

http://tinyurl.com/peruvian-serlano

Anyway... I have found that unripe tabasco peppers make AWESOME powder, and orange habaneros make some pretty good powder (but seemingly retain more heat than flavor, at least in my cheap food dehydrator). The mystery one, though, I think I'd rather use it fresh, it seems to have such a nice fruity flavor that seems to be utterly destroyed by drying.

So, that leads to the question: what are your favorite peppers for drying to make powders? I've personally noticed that smaller peppers (ie. tabasco) are kind of pointles to slice up and cook fresh into food, since their heat is not evenly distributed, but they are amazing as powders to use on pizza, bacon, breakfast sausage, and lots of other things. But what others excel at this use?
 
UZ64, I wouldn't give up on the ones you have tried before. TEMPERATURE has a lot to do with how the chiles turn out at the end of the drying process.

if you can, turn the temperature of your dryer down to less than 105F. That seems to be a good break-point to keep the chiles looking good when dried.


So, getting back to your original question, I've dried a lot of different chiles, and it all seems to come down to drying temp. I've done scorps red savina, habs, peters, fatalii,...... and if they can be dried at a lower temp, they turn out better.

We did some cayenne-esque chiles last year that dried WONDERFULLY! This probably didn't answer your original question, but maybe it'll help you enjoy the chiles you have.
best~ SL
 
Unfortunately, I have absolutely no way whatsoever to change the temperature on my food dehydrator. :( When I said cheap, I definitely meant cheap--it really is a cheap piece of junk. All I can do is use fewer or more "racks" (fewer would heat up quicker and retain more heat, I would imagine) or open or close the little "vents" on the top and bottom of the unit. In fact, I have read the instruction manual to find out what kind of heat the thing generates, with absolutely no answer whatsoever, so in the end... all I know is that the thing gets warm, and it does actually dry stuff, but I know nothing else about it. Except that it probably does a half-assed job of it. It also has no fans to more evenly distribute the heat, so I regularly invert the racks every once in a while, to make sure the stuff on the top racks dry as well.

I don't have any money right now to get a new food dehydrator, but I'd be glad to hear of some good ones that don't cost an arm an a leg, that work well, have good air circulation (fans maybe?), and have a temperature control...

If I ever find a decent one that I can afford, I'll definitely take your advice though, and not give up on the peppers I've already tried. I normally put whole peppers in the dehydrator (I figured it would help avoid the heat from being evaporated out), but I think I'll start cutting them in half first, if only to make sure they're not nasty and growing black mold inside...
 
I find my tabasco peppers get mushy when they start turning red. At the yellow stage they
are still firm. Never thought about making a power out of them. That's what I'm going to do.
 
SL - 105 degrees? I dried some cayennes last weekend at 135 and it probably took 20 hours. I'll try lowering the temp next time, but how much longer do you think it would take at that low a temp?

UZ - I picked up a Nesco dehydrator at bed bath and beyond. it's pretty decent, always gets good reviews, and BB&B's 20% off coupon that they mail all the time, it was only $48. not a bad deal for all you can do with it.
 
My tastiest powders come from my Mexican Bird Pepper (a frutescens similar to Tabasco) and Aji Cito (a baccatum similar to Aji Amarillo).
 
ForTheLoveOfSalsa said:
SL - 105 degrees? I dried some cayennes last weekend at 135 and it probably took 20 hours. I'll try lowering the temp next time, but how much longer do you think it would take at that low a temp?

UZ - I picked up a Nesco dehydrator at bed bath and beyond. it's pretty decent, always gets good reviews, and BB&B's 20% off coupon that they mail all the time, it was only $48. not a bad deal for all you can do with it.
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I use 135 sometimes and 115 others. If I have all the trays full at 115 it can 48 hours or so.
 
You guys are making me crazy. I can't wait til I get ripe peppers and can use my wifes dehydrator (that used to make jerky... then stopped). Do you slice them up first or dry them whole? Are you mixing the pepper powder or leaving it pure? How long do you usually dry them for?

sean
 
In humid climates like virginia, you can't dry in the sun. It just gets moldy. If
you live on the west coast, you don't need a dehydrator,
 
I slice the peppers open then attach the stems to some string. Each length of string normall has multiple peppers on it.

I then hang the peppers in the conservatory window. The sun & heat in the conservatory dries them out.

The reason i slice the peppers open is because i found if i didn't they would go all mushy inside and mould was a problem.
 
As already mentioned, thin types like cayennes should air dry quite easily even in humid environments. I just wish I had more flavorful chiles that would dry so easily. Tepins/pequins and other bird peppers are probably the best tasting easy dry variety that I've tried
 
I haven't dried many peppers yet, but I have done some Santaka / Thai Bird's Eye. It doesn't have a lot of bite to the heat, great flavor and a smooth rolling heat.
 
ccernst said:
I haven't dried many peppers yet, but I have done some Santaka / Thai Bird's Eye. It doesn't have a lot of bite to the heat, great flavor and a smooth rolling heat.
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Good to hear. By the end of the season I should have a zillion Santaka and Takanatsome chiles. I was wondering if they would make good powder, or if I was going to have to eat a ton of stir fry.
 
I have two varieties that I quite like for drying.

Red: Onza Roja

Yellow/Orange: Criolla Sella

Good flavors (to me) and thin-walled enough to dry easily.

The CSs are a little tougher to grind, but well worth it, IMO.

My last ristra took about two weeks to dry completely outside. The holdouts were the yellow bhuts, which took a little longer. The rest took about 3-4 days.
 
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