Please share your opinions

[Pepperfreak]

I have picked a lot of cayenne peppers and am looking for a way to keep them from spoilage. I know about canning, drying and freezing. But I would like to hear how some of you use up excess pods.

I also have a couple of questions to throw out here.

1st - When dehydrating pepper pods, is it best to cut them open and then dehydrate or can I just place the whole pepper in the dehydrator?

2nd - Can I freeze my Cayenne pods and then thaw them out at a later date to then dehydrate them?

 

[chilehunter]

excess pods! why I've never had that & didnt know what to do with them
kidding aside, I if I did have some that you'd consider "excess" I'd just dry them for latter use, be it powders/hot sauce/ or dried pods for cooking.

1st ? - you can leave them whole but it just takes longer to dry.

2nd ? - I suppose ya could but then why not just dry them in the first place ? & once frozen, pods are only good for hot sauce or for cooking because they'll be all soft.

 

[Chiliac]

1-it depends on the variety. It's recommendable to cut up the larger and thick walled ones, you can leave the smaller pods in one piece.

2-I agree with Chilehunter.

The peppers I can't use immediately for sauce making or cooking I dry, freeze or pickle.

 

[HotPeppersFlyFishing]

Paul
I agree both with chilihunter and chiliac!!
But I want to add (and this is my own personal
experiance and preferance) I would cut them
lenghtwise and dry them.That way (again in
my own experiance and preferance) they get more
brittle and like said above dry better.That way
you can use your Bullet and grind them up till
they powder and bam got some cayenne spice

 

[Pepperfreak]

Okay...So it was a silly question and perhaps I was over thinking it too much. It's just that...I guess...uhmm...I didn't expect to have so many Cayenne peppers all at once, and this was just my first picking. Not that I'm complaining, because I'm not, I just don't want to loose one precious pod. With that said, I have split them up into 2 groups, one group I am presently drying in the dehydrator and the other I'm planing on cooking with and maybe freezing some too (for later use with cooking).

Thanks for everyone's response and HPFF, I like the bam statement reminds me of Emeril

 

[HotPeppersFlyFishing]

Paul
This is a bit off topic but...Dont Pickle too many
in the same jar after you finish a jar. I made some
dill pickles this past week(for me and g/f) and some
sweet ones for her.I opened the jar let her taste a
few then cosed it up then went and got her more
and as I was opening it its cracked and shattered
in my hand didnt know I was slice til later
but I am sure it was just a freak accident

 

[Pepperfreak]

Paul
This is a bit off topic but...Dont Pickle too many
in the same jar after you finish a jar. I made some
dill pickles this past week(for me and g/f) and some
sweet ones for her.I opened the jar let her taste a
few then cosed it up then went and got her more
and as I was opening it its cracked and shattered
in my hand didnt know I was slice til later
but I am sure it was just a freak accident

Wow...I never new that could happen either and hopefully it was just a freak accident, but I will be sure to double check all of my jars before reusing them. I can only imagine the mess.

 

[Skydiver]

Those FoodSaver machines you see sometimes on late night infomercials, you can also get them at walmart and such, I always vacuum pack anything I'm not going to use immediately. Does a wonderful job, especially if you're just going to make sauces or salsa or something.

 

[Diabolus]

I had a ton of cayennes last year. Most of them I cut in half and froze them in double zip-lock bags. These lasted me all winter right up until April. I used them in all kinds of cooking: omelettes, sauces, salsas, etc. They never lost any of their heat.

 

[Sauceman51]

You guys make it all sound like work. I take my fresh peppers n put them into the food processor with the cutting blade. I am cutting about 1/2 bushel in about 20 minutes. Then I jam as many pieces onto each tray as possible. Sometimes using all 12 trays. I set the temp on the dehydrator on
high, n walk away. 10 hours later I switch out the trays, bottom to top. Top to bottom, n another 10 hours, done. Any questions??