Anyone here dehydrate their hot peppers ?

[sjoella]

livinonfaith--I should have my first figs this season. I would love it if you could share your recipes with me for perserves

as for hot peppers. I too have the NESCO, i love it I take all hot peppers i grow in the season dry them, grind them down into flakes or powder. it is something I share with select friends who love hot like me. I cant grow enough peppers!!! I think this season I probably dried/flaked about 3 gallon bags. I dont have a complete pint in the freezer now....so its my greedy season! NO YOU CANT HAVE ANYMORE :p i what i tell folks

[Tania]

I love my dehydrated peppers (both sweet and hot) even more than dehydrated tomatoes! The aroma is so wonderful!

Easy to make, and we add it to almost any dish (except deserts)

Tatiana

[Lowlander]

I dehydrate and run them through a coffee grinder that is reserved for this purpose ($4 at a yard sale). The coffee grinder can make a powder so fine you can barely tell the parts that "were" the seeds. I did this with Red Bhuts, Trinidad Scorps, and Thai Chilis last year.

[Hermitian]

Originally Posted by Noreaster

Have a fair amount of hot peppers, and was thinking about dehydrating some.

Anyone else do that ? I do some tomato with an inexpensive machine I bought years ago, but thinking about "moving up" and getting a much better one.

Anyone have a dehydrator they might recommend ?

I own an L'Equip model 528 and just love it. It's great for drying peppers along with the rest of the harvest from the vegetable and fruit gardens.

[Lowlander]

I use the 80 ltr model from Cabela's. It is a bit more expensive than most other brands, but it has 12 trays, central fans, interior lighting, adjustable temp and time, etc etc.

[Noreaster]

This was my first trial at dehydrating hot peppers.

What a blast !!!!!!!! And the most used thus far.....the ones ground in the Ninja, seed and all. Not yet in cold cereal, ice cream or pancakes.....but just about everything else.

Favorite flavors from Thai and Habanero. Life is better than ever !!!!!!

[ScottinAtlanta]

I throw my peppers into a colander, and smoke them over pecan wood for one hour, then dry them in an Excalibur. They have the most marvelous flavor.

[FarmerShawn]

Originally Posted by ScottinAtlanta

I throw my peppers into a colander, and smoke them over pecan wood for one hour, then dry them in an Excalibur. They have the most marvelous flavor.

Yes! I smoked a few as an experiment last fall before grinding and drying, and they are wonderful! The smoker will be much busier next fall, for sure.

I now have 2 Excalibur 9-trays, because I dry so many tomatoes, but they do marvelously for the peppers, too, and fast!

The most significant discovery I stumbled on last fall is my old hand-cranked grain grinder, which we only use rarely for milling grain any more. But after using the coffee grinder and having the fine powder float through the air everywhere (especially bothersome with the hot peppers - ouch!) I decided to give the old grain grinder (it has metal burrs) a try. I will never use the coffee grinder for peppers again. The grain mill was far quicker, and produced a much more consistent powder without all the fine stuff floating around. Now I am also increasing the peppers I will grow next year - love that powder, like others have said, on everything. Sweet, hot, red, orange, green - it's all good! (I even fried up some padrons, dried them, ground them up, and it was my son's favorite!

[tecolote]

I dehydrate, smoke, and hang my peppers in ristras. I then jar some whole and grind the rest.

I use an old homemade dehydrator I found at a garage sale, (it is large) and a old Indian Chief smoker. Sometimes I give a light smoke to them and then dehydrate, or I might let them dry completely in the smoker. Depending on how long I smoke them, I label them X, XX, and XXX. Good for Jalapenos (chipotles), Hungarian paprikas, Spanish pimentes, and anything else you can dream up. Hungarian Blacks X-smoked and preserved in Adobo is my favorite.

Ristras look great hanging in the kitchen but about Xmas they start to gather dust.
Grind 'em up, or make mole.

The tricky part is the grinder. After years of burning out small home coffee/spice grinders, and struggling to clean the remnants out of the bowl with a brush because you can't get it wet, I sprang for a Chef Pro wet/dry grinder (about 60 bucks). It has a large, removable stainless steel bowl that pops off for cleaning, and 2 extra blades that stick up like rabbit ears, pulverizing things flying in the vortex.

2 or 3 long pulses and a cup of chiles are ground to a nice consistency for pizza, another coupla pulses and you've got chile powder. Easy peasey...if you are wearing gloves and eye and face cover and doing it away from where you hang out. This sucker grinds so fast there will be dust in the air.

I also use it for old sun-dried tomatoes that have gotten to the point they won't rehydrate. I call it tomato dust, and I keep it in black,red, and yellow varieties. I use it to boost flavor in sauces, or to sprinkle on tasteless store-bought 'fake' tomatoes in the winter and spring.

And if you grind dried shiitakes, kombu seaweed, and bonito flakes together, you get all 3 of the principle forms of umami. Hence, Umami Dust.