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preservation Proper Dehydrator Temperature Settings

After 75 Hours at 95f, I removed the rest of the pods and unplugged the unit. Some could have stayed in longer as not all were ready to snap when I bend them. I am comfortable with the drop of moisture left, as I eat them pretty fast and am not worried they will go bad.
 
dragon49 said:
SLOW is the word. At 95f, after 57 hours, a little less then half the pods were ready. I left the rest in and the dehydrator is still running. The good news is that dehydrating does not remove any of the heat or flavor. I ate a few bites from one. I'll write back with the final time necessary to dry the remaining pods.

I do however have a followup question:

Assuming that I am not planning on saving the seeds and I don't care if the pods change color, is there any reason why on the next run, I can just max out the temp at 160f and dry these much faster?
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I currently use the same model you have. And yes it does take a while to do at 95. After using it for about a year, i have decided on 105 for peppers. I find that any temp higher then that, while it is faster ruins some of the flavor. For thin walled peppers i use 95. for thick walled peppers i use 105. They retain not only heat and color but also full flavor.

its not the most amazing dehydrator, but it works fine for me.
 
I am new to dehydrating foods, and I didn't want to spend more that the $60.00 than I did. It works as intended, AND the dried bhuts are delicious. I usually have hot sauce with each meal, but today, I had dried bhuts with each meal. I suspect that per portion, dried hot peppers are hotter and more flavorful than their fresh pod counterparts. With the water removed, the capsaicin and natural sugars must be more concentrated.
 
3 trays.
Bottom 2 are filled. One is empty (top) @ 110*. How long
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i have a nesco american harvest, and i love it. i dehydrate peppers at 140 for 8-10 hours outdoors. i mostly crush them to flakes or powder. i've been pretty happy with the taste and consistency at this tempurature. the only problem occurs if i don't crush them right away. if left on the counter overnight un-crushed they have a tendency to start to rehydrate a bit just from humidity (nothing another couple hours in the dehydrator doesn't cure). once they're crushed and in jars i never have an issue though.
 
Thanks for your review. It sounds like this model will meet my needs just fine. I'll just deseed the ones I want seed from and set to 105 - 110. Our daytime highs have been 108 the past few days, so a ristra would be an alternative!

Seriously, though, I've got a number of deseeded pods in the freezer from past purchases and a couple more boxes on the way. I'm gonna fire up the smoker and smoke them, then dehydrate.
 
I just dried a second batch of mostly Bhuts + some assorted other peppers. I kept the 95 F lowest setting. This time, I left everything in for 86 hours and 30 minutes. This has fully removed all of the moisture from the pods.
 
dragon49 said:
I just dried a second batch of mostly Bhuts + some assorted other peppers. I kept the 95 F lowest setting. This time, I left everything in for 86 hours and 30 minutes. This has fully removed all of the moisture from the pods.
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That is pretty much inline with what I am doing for most super hots.
 
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