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preservation Drying frozen peppers?

HellfireFarm

HellfireFarm

Business Member
Has anyone tried drying thawed frozen peppers?
How does it compare to dried fresh?

It looks like I have more peppers than my dehydrators can keep up with so while I'm building more I'm wondering if I can freeze the fresh ones until I can dry them. Note that end goal is powders.

If nobody else has done this, I guess I'll be reporting on the results later this year!
 
Hi HFF,

from a certain perspective freezing the peppers before drying may be a good idea.
When you freeze a pepper solid the individual cells rupture. Cell walls collapse, goo and gunk inside cells seep out and become more exposes to the environment. That the reason a thawed pepper has as much personality as an over-cooked noodle :-)
The freezing implies that the pepper dries a little quicker. So the "freeze first then dry" strategy has the potential to decrease the overall cost of producing dried peppers.
Personally I have never noticed a difference in terms of taste.
 
For inspiration...

drying - Overstuffed Dehydrator- 2016 PersonalBest stacking trays

Thanks, CHDan! Just Stack 'em up! I may have mentioned it before, but for ease of use, I suggest buying 3/4" or 1" (diameter) white PVC plumbing/irrigation couplings to use as spacers. That saves having to cut the PVC pipe as I did in the original post. For those folks who don't have the...
thehotpepper.com thehotpepper.com


When thawing frozen peppers to dehydrate, they will drop a lot of water, way more tham fresh chiles. Be prepared. Either drain on a colander and discard...GASP...eGads No...Or put a fruit leather tray on the bottom snd dry it out. Grind up snd put back into the peppers.

Have Fun!
SL
 
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