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How to dry peppers?

Slinter

Slinter

I do not have a dehydrator but want to know the propper way to dry peppers. Most importantly nagas, habs, and cayan. I live in southern california. I will be drying these for making powder. Will the powder keep in a shaker bottle, or should I put it in the fridge/freezer? Any painless methods for gringing them up? I have a mortar and pestle. Also, will whole peppers keep in the freezer if I throw them in a ziplock?
 
I just lay mine on the counter and rotate them every day...but I live in the desert and can do that!

I use a mortar and pestle because I can control the size of the dried pepper pieces. Some people like to use a coffee grinder. But, I'd clean it first!
 
I put mine in a micro gauze bag and hang them up to dry in the kitchen. No problem inland in dry california for thin walled stuff. For the more fleshy peppers I am experimenting with cutting up the peppers before drying to speed things up(just bought a load of orange habs to experiment with).
Powder007.jpg

I use a regular coffee grinder to make powder. I store my powder in air tight containers from Target.

my process in pictures here:

http://www.zensurweb.com/peppers/powder.htm
 
gday Slinter!

thicker peppers take a long time to dry so it might be better to halve or quarter them. you can put whole pods in a bowl in the fridge for a month or two and the dehumidifying effect will slowly remove the moisture. you can also halve/quarter them and place on a tray/rack in the oven on the lowest heat setting with the door slightly ajar and they will dry in a day. make sure you don't overdry in the oven or you will think the cops have shot your house full of pepperspray cannisters - trust me on this! an added benefit of oven drying is that the peppers get a crisp/roasty smell/flavour to them, very nice!

I would recommend against storing your chile powder in the fridge as it will gather moisture no matter how hard you try to stop it. best to do as hth suggests and store it in an air-tight container in the pantry or cupboard. you might like to put one of those little gel water absorbing things in with it, if you don't have any you can use rice!

you can freeze your peppers in a ziplock bag, just wash and dry them first. if you have the time and energy try turning them into mash first then freeze them in small batches, you can try making 'ice-cubes' out of them in a tray and then pop them into the ziplock bag (doublebag them to protect against freezer burn).

now I'll let someone else have a go.

Mark
 
chilliman64 said:
you can freeze your peppers in a ziplock bag, just wash and dry them first. if you have the time and energy try turning them into mash first then freeze them in small batches, you can try making 'ice-cubes' out of them in a tray and then pop them into the ziplock bag (doublebag them to protect against freezer burn).

now I'll let someone else have a go.

Mark
Click to expand...

You know, I make pesto in the summer and freeze it that way, but I never thought of making a pepper mash and freezing it. That would be perfect to pop in a stir fry and liven it up in the winter.

Thanks for the idea!
 
Hello Slinter. There has been some great suggestions made from experts already, but I'd like to just add my own experience.

I use a stadard el cheapo food dehydrator like this one: http://www.harvestessentials.com/defode71.html

I've used the natural drying methods in the past but sometimes I've been foiled and hundreds of peppers gone bad due to climate or insect problems.. Now it really depsnds on the pepper as some dry easier then others and some methods will work for some and not others.. I never want to have any kind of mold or insects in my food and want as kosher as can be veggies so this is one of the reasons why I hydrate.

This is what I do:
I pick the peppers that are ready from the vine and give them a good bath in a salt sterilizing water and then rinse with fresh water. I'll then cut the stem out and the pepper in half and put them in the dehydrator. Sometimes I'll also slice up some fruit if I want to get a little fruity flavored batch of peppers. I kick the hydrator on and about 10 -12 hours later the peppers are perfectly dried. Then I'll use the mortor and pestol to crush them up and put it into air tight container like a spice jar. Dried peppers last around a year from what I'm told but mine useually last about half that as I consume it all;)

Good luck and happy gardening!
 
I do like the Chiliman said I halve them and stick them in oven under the lowest heat with the door open almost like making jerky. Easy to tell when they are done just buy touching them.
You can also try them in a smoker as well make sure the temps are low under....
 
I use a dehydrator made by Nesco (american harvest) , IMO its the only way to dry chiles (using a dehydrator) its fast (dried within 1-2 days depending on the chile & your time to watch'em) & clean (no bugs or dirt if outside)
plus it can dry at lower temps vs using the oven.

but if you're a tightwad pennypincher then I guess leaving them sit outside or on the countertop for a week or two will work also :lol: they only cost about $40 at walmart or elsewhere (price might be different now but probably not more than $60 max)

also a little side note from my experience, I have 2 dehydrator's both same brand but the fan/heater is placed different - one the motor is at the top, the other unit is at the bottom. buy the kinds with the motor at the top because the heat over time warped my trays slightly with my 1 unit that had the motor at the bottom or the dishwasher did ?
but whatever warped'em the weight at the top is just better IMO. which also the heat could escape the dehydrator if the trays were warped but if the motor was at the top it'd compress the trays together.
 
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