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preservation Dehydrating peppers

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Heat.Index

I'm about to dehydrate a load of peppers and want to know, what is the best and proper way?
I want to do them whole but was told they do better halved. Is it necessary to vent each pepper
With a slit or hole? Any advice is appreciated.
 
When I dehydrate my bhuts when I cut um in half they dry faster and seem to retain there color better. I don't see them drying faster if you just cut a slit in them. if you do cut them in half dry them skin side down.
 
Yeah, at a minimum cut a slit in them or they'll take forever to dry. Not a big deal if you don't have a lot of pods, but if you've got another batch ripening while you're still try to get the first batch dry, you'll likely start to lose patience. Drying low (90F or below) takes longer, but retains flavor and color better, so halving is usually ideal if the pods are large enough not to slip through the vents in the shelves.
 
Slitting them seems to take forever for me. Even with a nice breeze blowing aroumd the peppers.
Halving them takes a lot less time for me. Markedly less time even with less of a breeze on them.
So far, the fastest way has been to halve them, deseed them then dry them...
I use my oven's warming tray set on low. It usually tops out right around 95-100.. seeds have sprouted just fine, color is fine, taste and heat are great.
 
I use a dehydrator and I've found if I poke holes in them and dry at the lowest temperature (about 90 F) they retain color the best. That does take a while though since its just like drying them with a fan in the summer heat. If you use the suggested vegetable temperature (130 F, I think) they tend to discolor, whether they're halved or whole. Cutting them keeps the color infinitely better than leaving them whole, but not as well as drying at a lower temperature imho
 
I halve mine and as said above I also place them skin down like a cup.....IMO it keeps the lovely capsaisin inside.

Don't be afraid to halve and freeze them while waiting on more to ripen. It will actually speed up the drying process. Freezing creates ice crystals in the cells, breaking their walls, which is why thawed peppers are mush, but dry great. Breaking the cell walls allows the water to escape faster.
 
Halving is much faster than slitting, I agree. But I stopped deseeding before drying quite some time back. Now I dry the seeds inside the pods, and only remove after everything's dry. When drying low and slow (about 90F), not only do the pods retain better color, but the seeds remain viable. Plus, they're easier to remove when dry. 
 
RedNeck Chili head said:
FYI I have purchased seeds that had been dehydrated and none grew. I air dry my seeds and on dry the pods.
Click to expand...
Believe me, you can 100% absolutely dehydrate pods with seeds and have the seeds be 100% viable once the pods are dry. Only if you dry at a low enough temperature though. Yes, if you put seeds in a dehydrator that has no adjustable temp then the seeds will almost certainly be cooked and dead
 
Think about seeds in a pod on a plant growing in the wilds of a hot climate.  Pods are regularly exposed to 110F (and higher) heat in their natural environment and yet the seeds still germinate. 
 
 
Lower temps in drying will yield higher germination rates.  Who knows what temps the dehydrated seeds RedNeck got were cooked at.  Lower temp dehydrated seeds are usually very viable.  
 
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