Food Dehydrator [General]
2014 Aug 6
That is in the right temperature range. You can do in on the dashboard of a car on (consecutive) sunny days too:
lifehacker.com
lifehacker.com
2014 Aug 6
Drying peppers at home is an excellent way to preserve them. Open up a jar of dried ground chilies, even months old, and you will experience an olfactory sensation every time. I love sticking my nose in a jar of them, still a thrill for me even after years of drying peppers
Tree Pug, are you going to use a dehydrator? Stand alone or oven? Are you drying your own peppers? Are you drying hot or sweet peppers?
Tree Pug, are you going to use a dehydrator? Stand alone or oven? Are you drying your own peppers? Are you drying hot or sweet peppers?
2014 Aug 11
Sorry TP, been meaning to get back to your thread.
I don't have a dehydrator so I can't comment on those stand alone units.
TP do you have a convection oven that you can use? And does it have a convection setting that can get to lower temperatures needed for dehydrating? Mine will run in dehydrating mode at 120 deg F or higher/lower as needed, and the fan will continue to run if the door is ajar where it won't do either in normal convection mode. It works really well for drying peppers. I wash, split and core the peppers, remove seeds and membranes if I don't want them ( I do both ways with hot peppers as I want them both really hot or less hot but with more flavour without the seeds and membranes). If doing small peppers, jalapeņos,serranos, etc I will put a cookie cooling rack on my oven rack so they don't fall through. Otherwise larger peppers go right on the oven rack, split side up. 120 deg F for 8 to 12 hours or so . As they dry I tend to remove the dry ones and move the drying peppers around to the areas that seem to dry fastest, corners, upper rack, etc. I also smoke some peppers and either freeze them or dry them, skinned, seeded or not. I remove peppers from oven when dry but usually still somewhat flexible though some may be pretty crispy dry. I put them in paper bags and store them in the cupboard above the fridge where the heat of the fridge helps them get good and dry. On a sunny, low humidity day I will grind some peppers in a blender, snipping them into about 1 inch pieces to grind. Danger, danger, sniff the ground peppers with caution, they can be dynamite! Ya gotta love that stuff!
I don't have a dehydrator so I can't comment on those stand alone units.
TP do you have a convection oven that you can use? And does it have a convection setting that can get to lower temperatures needed for dehydrating? Mine will run in dehydrating mode at 120 deg F or higher/lower as needed, and the fan will continue to run if the door is ajar where it won't do either in normal convection mode. It works really well for drying peppers. I wash, split and core the peppers, remove seeds and membranes if I don't want them ( I do both ways with hot peppers as I want them both really hot or less hot but with more flavour without the seeds and membranes). If doing small peppers, jalapeņos,serranos, etc I will put a cookie cooling rack on my oven rack so they don't fall through. Otherwise larger peppers go right on the oven rack, split side up. 120 deg F for 8 to 12 hours or so . As they dry I tend to remove the dry ones and move the drying peppers around to the areas that seem to dry fastest, corners, upper rack, etc. I also smoke some peppers and either freeze them or dry them, skinned, seeded or not. I remove peppers from oven when dry but usually still somewhat flexible though some may be pretty crispy dry. I put them in paper bags and store them in the cupboard above the fridge where the heat of the fridge helps them get good and dry. On a sunny, low humidity day I will grind some peppers in a blender, snipping them into about 1 inch pieces to grind. Danger, danger, sniff the ground peppers with caution, they can be dynamite! Ya gotta love that stuff!
Tree Pug