Drying Hot Peppers [Cooking]

2010 Aug 16
Hey folks, was not sure whether or not I should put this in the other thread

Forum - Dehydration Fun

And in the end decided to make a new one.

I just hit the motherload of hot peppers - got 8 lbs of mixed peppers for 10 bucks! It pays to get to know your farmers! I was poking around at Parkdale this morning and stopped in to my regular farmer and mentioned that I had to start looking at peppers. She said she had a bunch from the weekend that she could give me really cheaply - man was she not kidding!

So I have my dehydrator ready, but am not sure how to proceed. Do them whole? Seed and core them first?

I'd like to try my hand at some hot pepper powder so I guess some of them will have to be cored and seeded. But do they dry well whole?

Here is the big pile of them mixed.

2010 Aug 16
And sorted out

2010 Aug 16
and then these kinds - anyone have any idea what kind these all are?

The big yellow ones I think she called Hungarian - and said they were kind of mild.

2010 Aug 16
The last pic is jalapeno & mitla, the big yellow ones are Hungarian waxy pepper (mild), the long red ones look like long slim cayenne.

2010 Aug 16
For drying, you can halve them, leave the seeds & stem if you want.

2010 Aug 16
You can also just string them up in a window Basque Country style, it works surprisingly well but it's a little involved...

2010 Aug 16
The ones in the third pic look like larger variety Jalapenos (hard to gauge the size in the photo). Is that scarring on some of them? If so, it's called corking and Jalapenos are know to exhibit it. That's the heat level like?

Regardless, they appear to be "thick skinned". It'd take a long time to dry them so you're best to slice them in half. FYI, I dry a lot of peppers each year and always slice my peppers. Not only do they dry faster, you can inspect them to make sure no pests have moved in or rotting has begun. I'm surprised at what I've found. Of course the finish product won't look as esthetically pleasing as dried hole peppers but I like to get my protein other ways.

As for your question about removing the seeds, it largely depends on your taste. Seeds impart a bitter taste, more so when dried. And contrary to what a lot of cooks say about removing seeds to reduce heat levels, seeds do not contain much capsaicin, the component that gives peppers their heat. The membrane that holds the seeds contains the majority of capsaicin. Most people scrape out the membrane to remove seeds quicker so the result is less heat.

Hope this helps.


2010 Aug 16
I have 2 layers like this on my dehydrator

2010 Aug 16
One layer like this

2010 Aug 16
One layer of whole cayenne

2010 Aug 16
And a layer of cored/seeded cayenne

2010 Aug 16
And a bunch of leftover cayenne that have since been cored/seeded, and are going onto the smoker tomorrow!

2010 Aug 16
And some REALLY *%^king sore hands!

Did not wear gloves, and tried the wash-with-oil trick to remove the hotness. It does work a lot better than washing with just soap and water, but it still leaves a lot behind when you've just cored and seeded over 7lbs of hot peppers!

2010 Aug 16
Whoops, of course the leftovers above are Jalepeno, not cayenne

2010 Aug 16
my jalepeno plants have been prolific this year. smoked is great. there is also some pics on here of them stuffed with cheese, wrapped with bacon and grilled. i have roasted them, then pureed and let in the fridge. a dollop is great on soup.

for hot pepper hands - try rubbing lemons on your hands, that seems to help with the hot peppers. and be careful going to the washroom...

2010 Aug 16
Quote: "I'd like to try my hand at some hot pepper powder so I guess some of them will have to be cored and seeded. But do they dry well whole?"

I dry Crimson Hot (ancho-type) peppers every year (they're almost the size of Hungarian Wax) and I do them both ways - whole and split. The whole I use for decorative purposes and for saving for fresh grinding in the future; the split I dry and grind with the seeds, resulting in something akin to ground red chilies in appearance, a bit more heat, and a lot more flavour. It`s something I use a lot of in my cooking. I grind the peppers in a blender, cutting up the peppers into smaller pieces to grind a bunch at a time. The blender grinds quite finely but leaves lots of seeds - just don`t stick your nose in and sniff too deeply!!! I find that it`s really hard to resist giving a little sniff for quality control.

The whole peppers take more than twice as long to dry and you have to inspect them carefully for holes that show they are likely breeched by unsavoury characters (as HotFood suggested). My oven has a dehydrator setting so I dehydrate many hours at 140F with fan on until they are good and dry at stem end.

2010 Aug 16
zymurgist One of my coworkers burned her hands a couple of years ago from coring and seeding hot peppers. She plunged her fingers in a bowl of yogurt and she swears it worked...

2010 Aug 16
After reading HFFs comments above I tried some lemon juice and it helped a bit too, but my hands are still burning. But not enough to make me go try the yoghurt trick :-0 I'll be fine.

My buddy was telling me about an hour ago that a few years ago he cut up a crapload of habanaro (sp?) peppers and ended up getting chemical burns off them!

Next time I'm doing this much I'll definitely wear gloves. We have a box of them already.

2010 Aug 16
Pasta Lover,

Your friend did the right thing, yogurt (or other dairy products) help neutralize the capsaicin. Using soap and water etc. just tends to spread the capsaicin around. FYI, worst thing you can do if you bite into a pepper that's too hot is drink water or swig a beer, it just spreads the pain around.

FWIW

2010 Aug 16
I don'tknow, HotFood, seems to me that if you drink enough beer it kills the pain...

Nevertheless, wear a glove zym, or two, and feel a lot less pain.

2010 Aug 16
Just washed my hands with yoghurt, then wiped my eyes through my t shirt

OMFG my eyes hurt.

Good night :-)

Though I'm guessing I'd have needed to do that much earlier than now.

2010 Aug 16
should make some of those "atomic buffalo turds" I have seen people make on here!!

2010 Aug 17
Zym, I would have killed for your haul of jalapenos...

I've never tried it, but I would imagine instead of drying you could have smoked them and canned them (chipotle style).

2010 Aug 17
Nice haul. My habanero plants are producing huge amounts of peppers, which I'll need to start drying soon as they are ripening now. The couple that I've tried are killer hot, more so than the grocery store types I've used over the years. I'll have to wear gloves ;-)

This is my first time growing habs, I'm surprised how easy it is, the plants didn't require much attention at all, just a little water when it didn't rain often. I grew in containers so I can move around the yard if required. I started with very fertile soil and it hasn't required any additional fertilizers since planting. Much easier than growing tomatoes in containers!

2010 Aug 17
Wow Zym, the eyes are the worst area to burn IMO.

When I said "yogurt (or other dairy products) help neutralize the capsaicin" the operative words were "help neutralize". It won't totally neutralize. Like others, we always use gloves. I'll be processing some ripe Bhut Jolokia pods this week. I think double gloving will be in order! Maybe even safety goggles and a respirator mask ;-))

2010 Aug 17
Ouch I can feel the pain - I remember the first time I did used habaneros without gloves. As to chemical burns - don't believe it. Yes your hands/eyes burn, however capsicum has no long lasting effects (more than a day or so). I guess someone could have an allergic reaction but not an actual burn. This does not diminish the pain ...

2010 Aug 17
So how long should I smoke those peppers?

2010 Aug 17
I smoke my halved pods 3 - 5 hours in good heavy smoke and transfer to the dehydrator. Your mileage will vary based on type of pepper, whole or halved and personal taste.

Hint: dehydrate smoked peppers outside unless you like that campfire in every room smell.

2010 Aug 17
OK, thanks HotFood. They are in 2 hours now so I'll leave them longer. And will put the dehydrator on the side porch for that leg of the operation :-)

EDIT: they are halved

2010 Aug 19
Zym,

Any updates for us?

2010 Aug 19
Yup, they are all dried and in bottles at this point. I smoked the jalepenos about 3 hours with cherry and apple. They smell fantastic. I have a video to edit of the whole thing but won't likely have time to do it for a while. Don't think I have more pics to post but will check