Seen a lot of people asking about powder make methods. Figured I would post a method is use to make "Fine" paprika like grind. The skinning part will only really work for meatier peppers.
First off the peppers I'm working with. These are Sweet Hungarian. In this case I am literally making paprika.
There is a bit of extra processing before you dry the peppers for powder.
To make a strong tasting powder you want to remove the seeds, and if you can also remove the skin. This is because the they have very little flavor, and have a lot o fiber. The fiber "bulks" the powder out making it less intense.
To do this I remove the seeds, and steam the peppers. In this case these are sweet peppers. So I did not put in the effort to save the pith. If you were doing this with hot peppers I would save de-seed, but also save the pith since that's where the heat is.
This is pretty big pot so it fit the full 5 gallon pail of peppers in one go.
They are a lot more compact once they have been steamed.
A close up of the peppers.
You can just peel the skin off now.
But it's much easier to just scrape the meat off the skin. Just lay it skin side down scrape it off with a flat edge. I used a pastry knife.
And now I blended the meat as if I were making a sauce. This included sending the blend through a mesh to produce a fine consistent texture.
Here is how you dry the "Sauce". You just put on paper in the dehydrator. You will want to use baking paper. NOT wax paper.
Once dry it will look like a large "cracker" like sheet.
It should pull easily away from the paper.
Now just break it up, and grind.
This will grind very fine now. But chunks of it will remain somewhat large. The best way to handle the issue is simply to sift the powder through a mesh. And then re-grind the larger pieces.
The power in this case is flour like, very fine and has a very strong flavor.
You can see just how fine the powder by looking at the mesh.
The entire 5 gallon bucket made enough powder to fill roughly a 12 once mason jar.
Be warned though powder of this texture will have a tendency to clump together and stick to everything. If you want to "free flowing" you will need to add some sort of free-flow agent. In most commercial spices it's a type of silica.
First off the peppers I'm working with. These are Sweet Hungarian. In this case I am literally making paprika.
There is a bit of extra processing before you dry the peppers for powder.
To make a strong tasting powder you want to remove the seeds, and if you can also remove the skin. This is because the they have very little flavor, and have a lot o fiber. The fiber "bulks" the powder out making it less intense.
To do this I remove the seeds, and steam the peppers. In this case these are sweet peppers. So I did not put in the effort to save the pith. If you were doing this with hot peppers I would save de-seed, but also save the pith since that's where the heat is.
This is pretty big pot so it fit the full 5 gallon pail of peppers in one go.
They are a lot more compact once they have been steamed.
A close up of the peppers.
You can just peel the skin off now.
But it's much easier to just scrape the meat off the skin. Just lay it skin side down scrape it off with a flat edge. I used a pastry knife.
And now I blended the meat as if I were making a sauce. This included sending the blend through a mesh to produce a fine consistent texture.
Here is how you dry the "Sauce". You just put on paper in the dehydrator. You will want to use baking paper. NOT wax paper.
Once dry it will look like a large "cracker" like sheet.
It should pull easily away from the paper.
Now just break it up, and grind.
This will grind very fine now. But chunks of it will remain somewhat large. The best way to handle the issue is simply to sift the powder through a mesh. And then re-grind the larger pieces.
The power in this case is flour like, very fine and has a very strong flavor.
You can see just how fine the powder by looking at the mesh.
The entire 5 gallon bucket made enough powder to fill roughly a 12 once mason jar.
Be warned though powder of this texture will have a tendency to clump together and stick to everything. If you want to "free flowing" you will need to add some sort of free-flow agent. In most commercial spices it's a type of silica.
. I basically do the same thing except I remove the seeds before dehydrating them. My coffee grinder is a cheap Black & Decker but it gives me a powder almost as fine and without much hassle!
thought Nu-flow rice powder was the best choice. We were right even after
