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dried Using dried peppers for sauces?

I am wanting to get some Hatch peppers(Hatch, NM) but it is not the time to be able to get fresh ones, would it be possible to order some dried ones and use them in a sauce? I'm still pretty new to making sauces and have only used what I have grown so far. Thanks in advance for any input.
 
Yes dried peppers can be used to make sauce. A few notes though. Drying peppers has a number of effects.

First off it can reduce the heat of the pepper.

It also can substantially change the flavor of the pepper. For example take a Yellow Hungarian wax pepper, try it fresh. It has a sour, almost pickled like taste to it. Then try it dried, it becomes smooth flavored almost cheese like.

Texture unless you fully rehydrate the pepper before making the sauce. You will find the texture changes a lot as time passes and or heat is applied. This can be good or bad depending on if you milled the pepper first, and what you intend for the sauce.

Dry peppers will also make you sauce more "chemically stable" Simply because the only water and or acids in your equation is what you added, and not what the pepper contained.
 
Ok makes sence I might make a run over to Hatch and pick a bunch next weekend. Would you recommend using them reconsituted or grind them for a basic sauce?
 
depends on the texure you want for the sauce.

reconstitute and chunky chop them for a chunkier sauce or powder the dried chiles and use the powder for a smoother sauce.

Dried chiles work great for sauces. Some have little or no change in flavor from the fresh pod flavor to the dried pod flavor. Others, as DaQatz mentioned, will have some difference in flavor. Depending on what else goes into the sauces, it may or may not make any difference.

Hope this helps-
SL
 
Once again great info for the biginner such as myself, I think I'll try it both ways and see what I prefer, plus it will give me more to experiment with.
 
"Dry peppers will also make you sauce more "chemically stable" Simply because the only water and or acids in your equation is what you added, and not what the pepper contained."

Thats right. I dont have exact recipes but dryed peppers, vinegar, salt.
 
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