About 2-3 weeks ago I put some habanero and some jalapeno peppers up on a string in my kitchen to dry and grind down to powder. Lately they've looked worse and worse. My habaneros will go from having bright orange skin to black skin around the top that just expands slowly every day till I end up throwing them out. Some of them had big black burned looking spots, they would have black-skinned parts that were dry and crackly and peeling. And my Jalapeno's have big orange-ish spots on them, just one on each pepper that is. I think that may just be ripening but I'm not sure. No pics at the moment though, does anyone have an idea of what's going on? I couldn't find anything like this online.
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Pepper drying problems
- Thread starter Slagathor
- Start date
I Dehydrated my Habaneros so i can crushed them and sprinkle them on food, I was afraid that they rot and create mold, so what i did was to cut each pepper into about 4 slices, and placed the peppers ontop of my house so they can get all the sunlight and Dry fast, it took about 2 days for the peppers to be dryed enough to crush them, maybe if i would of left them a couple more days i could of made some powder, Just Try to cut the peppers into smaller pieces and put them out in the sun.
yeah, I cut mine in half and stuck in them in the oven at the lowest temp I could set it too (which wasn't that low) but I just watched them until they looked pretty dry without anymore moisture and left them out for a few more days to dry up all the way.. this year since I will have tons more peppers (and I also tried to vacuum pack them and freeze them which didn't work at all, because they are so mushy when I thawed them out) I think I will make a long fire pit with all the rocks I have in the side of the yard and make a smoke pit, and slowly smoke them for the day.. should be kind of cool
You can dry them whole but not in the kitchen. They need to be some place that has as close to zero humidity as possible or as you're finding out they rot. Your best bet is to follow the wonderful directions everyone else has contributed and cut them into smaller pieces.
The smoke pit that Maxsack331 is talking about sounds very tasty to me.
The smoke pit that Maxsack331 is talking about sounds very tasty to me.
So pretty much they're all bad? ;~;
The jalapeno's may be good still. The orange color is ripening, that is if they're going from green to orange. Give 'em a good inspection and if there isn't any black or fuzzy stuff they should be OK. Won't hurt ya to eat a little mold as long as you're not allergic. I like BBQ sauce as a mold flavor cover. 
The jalapeno's may be good still. The orange color is ripening, that is if they're going from green to orange. Give 'em a good inspection and if there isn't any black or fuzzy stuff they should be OK. Won't hurt ya to eat a little mold as long as you're not allergic. I like BBQ sauce as a mold flavor cover.
Yeah, they're all a dark-ish green with a kinda light orange spot about the size of a dime in the center of them. It's kind of like the color of the habanero's. They're also pretty wrinkly after hanging up, but still pretty flexible. Also, I mistakenly didn't wash them in any way shape or form before hanging and was too lazy to take them down to wash and then re-string.
Since you live by the ocean, it is likely too humid for you to dry them indoors, as already mentioned. (It's a beautiful part of the country, though!) You will likely be okay hanging them, though, if it's sunny enough. But this time of year the sunshine can be spotty, and if that's the case, I'd recommend you either get a small dehydrator or try the low-temp oven method.
And do me a favor, and go get a hot dog at the place on the corner across from the university, then eat it for me. Yum.
And do me a favor, and go get a hot dog at the place on the corner across from the university, then eat it for me. Yum.
And do me a favor, and go get a hot dog at the place on the corner across from the university, then eat it for me. Yum.
Haha, I'll stop by the weenee wagon some day for you, I've been there once and didn't get anything because it was so expensive there (and they didn't take cards). And yeah I was thinking of just breaking down and doing the oven method, the reason why I didn't originally do that is because I heard it makes the peppers have a kind of weird taste, not a good roasted kind of taste or anything though. And also, does anyone know if it would be possible to dry them on a charcoal grill to also get the smokey taste? Maybe if I filled half the grill with coals and kept the peppers over the clear side for an hour or 2?
that is pretty much what I was talking about with the smoke pit, except I figured instead of using a grill, I would just make a 4' ditch or something and build it up and construct it with rocks ectt... to make a smoke pit.. If I had any steal drums around here that were clean I would give that a shot lol, but I don't so the ground and some rocks works well for me.. it's basically a fire pit but I will use coals and wood chips instead of a fire..
so yes it would work, and as far as I know the ones that I had in the oven didn't taste bad at all, they tasted really good, but I guess it depends on the type of oven you have.. I have a convection oven, so maybe a gas oven would taste weird, I would personally just cut them in 1/2 and dry them out the rest of the way because you might end of having a bunch rot if you don't, I waiting for a bunch of mine to ripen from the ones I brought in before it snowed and let them sit in the bottom of the fridge for a while, and a lot of them just ended up going bad before I just started rinsing them and putting some holes in them and throwing them into the hot cherry pepper juice jars that I had kept after eating all the cherry peppers lol
Yep i made the same mistake, we both live in a humid sub tropical climate zone & air drying doesn't work (to much moisture in the air) . 
I had strung mine with fishing line & exactly the same results happened, but i didn't throw mine i saved the seeds & have successfully germinated them in to healthy plants.
You need to invest in a dehydrator for sure, sadly there is no electricity where i am so im constructing a solar dehydrator as we speak (check my glog) & hopefully that will dry my chilli`s.
Mezo.
I had strung mine with fishing line & exactly the same results happened, but i didn't throw mine i saved the seeds & have successfully germinated them in to healthy plants.
You need to invest in a dehydrator for sure, sadly there is no electricity where i am so im constructing a solar dehydrator as we speak (check my glog) & hopefully that will dry my chilli`s.
Mezo.
I throw mine in the oven at about 175 for awhile.
You sure can. Cutting the peppers in half will help speed up the drying process. You can also collect the seeds before scorching them in the oven
.
You sure can. Cutting the peppers in half will help speed up the drying process. You can also collect the seeds before scorching them in the oven
.Cutting the peppers in half will help speed up the drying process. You can also collect the seeds before scorching them in the oven
+ 1 on that.
Mezo.
salsalady
eXtreme Business
Why do you cover with foil? Seems like that would trap the moisture in?
Using the grill is an excellent way to dry your pods. You don't need a lot of charcoal though, just a few pieces. Here's how I smoke peppers. I use four or five pieces of charcoal and get them going on one side of the grill. The peppers are washed and cut in half and laid on a piece of foil open side of the pepper up. These go on the opposite side of the coals. You can use any type of chips you want, last time I did this it was apple and pecan. You can also use the pellets. You want to keep your temps under 200. Now it's just add a piece of charcoal or more chips as needed to keep things warm and smokey. It will take the better part of a day to do this so grab a 12 pack and every now and then you should test the "doneness" of the peppers.
Good luck.
Good luck.
its just the way i have always done it. it might be a wasted step.