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powder-flake My Grindage (aka Powder) is a little Rough. Help!

PeteyPepper

PeteyPepper

I ground a gallon freezer bag of dried Jamaican Hot Choc peppers this afternoon and got about 3/4 cup of powder. The problem is that the coarseness of the powder is thicker than I would like. My coffee grinder has no "fineness" settings so I grind until I get the powder as fine as I can. I then put it through a flour mill to prevent as much of the seeds and "thicker" stuff from being in the final powder.

My batch today is definitely acceptable (and quite hot!) but not what I want my finished product to be like. I want super fine powder (chili powder). How do I go about getting this consistency? Also, do you folks remove the seeds from the peppers before dehyrating so that you don't get the "seed particulates" in your powder?

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I always scrape out the seeds before dehydrating, but I make sure to leave the white ribs in there otherwise you would be tossing out the heat.

Also I use a coffee grinder and can get the powder quite fine. If it looks a little too coarse then the trick is to keep swirling it around in the grinder so the knives keep hitting the powder. Eventually after a few minutes it is really fine.
 
Always make sure you remove the seeds before grinding - it will make the process easier and the result better.
 
I leave the seeds in and they are ground fine.

I'd guess your grinder blades are dull and need sharpening. If you're not up to sharpening them just buy another grinder or use a Mason jar on your blender if those blades are sharp.
 
I always use the whole pod, take the stem off and grind. I also use a Magic Bullet and can get my powders as fine as galic powder. You should get the powder finer the more time you allow for the grinding. If not go find a Magic Bullet, they are so versitale, you'll love it.
 
I grind seed and all in a magic bullet and it comes out superfine. Like Silver Surfer said your blades could be dull and just knocking the peppers around instead of cutting them. Another thing i found is that if the peppers aren't completely dry and brittle, it's difficult to get a fine powder.
 
I remove stems only. The coffee grinder I use does fantastic work. It takes two cycles of about 25 seconds and the powder is as fine as talc. I'll tilt the grinder at a 45 degree angle and rotate it on the second run to insure all the little pieces meet the blades as many times as possible.

The only thing the seeds do is lighten the color up a little.

Try to sharpen your blades like SS suggested if you can. If not maybe it's time to get a new one. Good luck
 
I run my pods through the food processor first.
It flakes them up and makes it so my coffee grinder doesn't overheat as soon.
You can probably sift out the seeds between using the food processor and the coffee mill.
 
You can see a lot of seeds are in that batch in the pic
I like to remove seeds for a better looking, less bitter powder but its quite difficult with smaller peppers so I usually only remove them from larger annuum peppers like anchos or Anaheims which are easy to do.
For grinding large batches, I start with my small cuisinart to break down the bulk and then I use my cheap coffee grinder for a fine powder. The magic bullet is also good for a courser powder. I also like to chill peppers before grinding since the grinder blades create heat which can muck things up.
 
I use a cheap $7 coffee grinder too and it works great. Seeds and all come out very fine. I de-stem them before they go in the dehydrator.
 
I've never ground chili's to make a powder, but I do use a cheap blade grinder to grind different spices. You can get it to a really fine powder by shaking the grinder or pulsing it. I haven't used mine long enough to need to sharpen the blades so I can't comment on that.

The only problem I can see is that they aren't designed for large amounts. You'll have to grind a smaller amount each time until you're finished. Not really a big deal unless you're planning on grinding large amounts of peppers
 
I have been using my blender to break them up, then run them through a burr grinder and it comes out very fine. The burr grinder by itself didn't like the whole peppers and to get them in a regular coffee grinder was a pain.
 
UnNatural said:
I grind seed and all in a magic bullet and it comes out superfine.
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Same here. I usually remove the stem before putting them in the dehydrator and if you get them crispy and use a magic bullet you will end up with pepper dust. Just be careful and use a good face mask as it can grind it small enough to be air born and ingesting pepper dust into the lungs is no joke! I also grind green onion fresh garlic, and some good sea salt with every batch of powder. Really balances out the powder and adds a bit of extra flavor. So far my best powder has been the ahi pineapple.
 
LGHT said:
Same here. I usually remove the stem before putting them in the dehydrator and if you get them crispy and use a magic bullet you will end up with pepper dust. Just be careful and use a good face mask as it can grind it small enough to be air born and ingesting pepper dust into the lungs is no joke! I also grind green onion fresh garlic, and some good sea salt with every batch of powder. Really balances out the powder and adds a bit of extra flavor. So far my best powder has been the ahi pineapple.
Click to expand...

Does it hurt the lungs or just burn?
 
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