• General food and cooking questions, discussion, and recipes. To blog your food or to create (or post in) a community food thread, please post in Post Your Eats!

drying Dehydrating peppers for powder, suggestions?

SadisticPeppers

SadisticPeppers

Business Member
I've been perusing the forums for a method of getting some chili powder done, and I couldn't find anything beyond discussing the best method of dehydrating. I got myself the FD80 dehydrator from Nesco, since it seemed to be pretty highly recommended.

My main thing is that as far as making powder, beyond the dried chili pods, what other ingredients (if any) would be recommended. Dried cumin seemed to come up often on Google searches I've done for chili powder, but beyond that, it seemed to be a matter of personal preference...

Any advice would be most welcome :)
 
For pepper powder, just the pepper! Or, sounds like you are trying to make a mix for chili (the meal)?
 
Just pure straight up powdered chili, good sir! :onfire: :hell:
 
Duly noted, thanks, Spongey :)
 
i had always wondered if anyone bothered to seperate seeds from pods prior to drying and grinding.

it seems like you could use a food mill type thing to get some sort of seedles puree then just dehydrate it in a dish.
 
elcap1999 said:
Just pure straight up powdered chili, good sir! :onfire: :hell:
Click to expand...

There's your answer :D

Don't add anything. Use it to add to other things that are more thought out. Like a rub for BBQ. Okay, I want to add some TS powder. I have a bottle. Boom.
 
The Hot Pepper said:
There's your answer :D

Don't add anything. Use it to add to other things that are more thought out. Like a rub for BBQ. Okay, I want to add some TS powder. I have a bottle. Boom.
Click to expand...

I just wanted to make absolutely sure, ya know ;)

spongey600 said:
i suually just leave the seeds in the pods, i do remove the seeds from a few pods to keep the seeds.
Click to expand...

I'll be doing the same thing with me. By and large, I'll be keeping a portion of my seeds for the sake of selling them and for new plants as needed.
 
Blends like chili powder often have things added like cumin powder... my take on that is that it's better to buy the whole spices and grind what you need at the time. Once you grind the spices, the volatile oils begin to evaporate away, so why buy ground spices that've been sitting on the shelf for a year or more when you can use freshly ground?
 
has anyone tried removeing the seeds mechanically period? its my understanding, as per my brothers GF... that a food mill removes seeds and skins from tomatos for makeing paste and such?

i have a freezer rack full of pods that are takeing up too much space, id like to just pour the puree into a gallon jug or something and freeze that, but i dont want the seeds in there. why? because removeing them mechanically is interesting.
 
Why not just wear nitrile gloves, cut the pods in half lengthwise and hold the pepper halves in one hand and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds with the other? That's how I prepare my gochu peppers for the dehydrator.
Keep it simple...
 
sorry for dragging this off topic...

.
stickman said:
Why not just wear nitrile gloves, cut the pods in half lengthwise and hold the pepper halves in one hand and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds with the other? That's how I prepare my gochu peppers for the dehydrator.
Keep it simple...
Click to expand...

thats 100% the best way to go about it, i agree with you. if i had to do it right now id just do that.

i was just mulling around the idea of procesing peppers in some such mannor as to save as many of the seeds as possible, while also prepairing something acceptable like a pulp that could be dried and ground into powder or further blended into a puree. i was thinking along the lines of coarsly shreading the flesh then grindeing through some sort of mechanical sieve that hold the seeds, then just seperate them out according their specific gravity. kinda like an ametureish seed procesor. i was wondering if anyone had experiance useing these food mill devices with pepper flesh or whole pods w/e, and how the seeds ended up.
anyway this was just an interesting idea i was rolling around. i now think its a discussion for another place.
sorry to the OP for the off topic stuff.
 
queequeg152 said:
has anyone tried removeing the seeds mechanically period? its my understanding, as per my brothers GF... that a food mill removes seeds and skins from tomatos for makeing paste and such?

i have a freezer rack full of pods that are takeing up too much space, id like to just pour the puree into a gallon jug or something and freeze that, but i dont want the seeds in there. why? because removeing them mechanically is interesting.
Click to expand...

Well if you dehydrate and powder them they will take up no space... A lot of peppers can fit into a small bottle of pure pepper powder..
 
And as far as smoking the peppers with flavor (applewood, hickory, etc.) I noticed on Amazon that there's a 30" tall smoker for a good deal, and now I'm considering getting it. That being said, is it best to smoke them first, then dehydrate, or dehydrate then smoke? I'm thinking smoke then dehydrate, but I wanted to make sure
 
We did a batch of Datils smoked in mesquite and they are amazing... being lazy, my buddy the smoke master smoked them whole, then I dried them and ground them in my mini grinder/chopper...the smoke masks any bitter seed flavor afaict. When I made my superhot powder is was just pure, plain dried pods, deseeded and ground.
 
Duly noted, thanks, greenman!

My thinking was that if you cut them in half, then they'd be able to soak up more of the smoky flavor to them, but if I pull the trigger on getting the smoker, I'll definitely try it out :)
 
Got my dehydrator this evening, so I decided to go ahead and put it to good use. Put in 3/4 pound of Butch T's, and just under 1/4 pound of yellow Datil's, courtesy of a purchase from PepperRich. The dehydrator recommends between 3-20 hours for the peppers, so I'll hedge my bets and have it go until the morning.

Can't wait to see how it turns out.
 
I just made my first batch. Turned out great. Smoked some of the peppers first, after halving and deseeding. I have a Nesco, as well. About half were done in 24 hours and the other half took until 48 hours. Their "3 - 20 hours" is a bit off, me thinks.

Anyway, if you want to check out my thread on my first powder, its under the Hot Talk subforum. I don't want to post a link lest it look like I'm plugging my own thread, lol. I've seen people be accused of that before.

I think you're going to be very happy with your finished product.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top