Tomatoville® Gardening Forums


Notices

General information and discussion about cultivating peppers.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old March 22, 2017   #16
Worth1
Tomatovillian™
 
Worth1's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Den of Drunken Fools
Posts: 38,539
Default

There is no pepper too thick to dry.
It all depends on the environment.
Look at the so called paprika type peppers.
One thing a person can do is to cut a slit in each one this helps out a lot.
There are some places you simply cannot dry a pepper without help and that is in constantly humid areas it just isn't going to happen without help in one way or another.
When I was on the gulf coast I had to put them in the oven on warm all day with the door cracked open.

In Idaho in the dry high altitudes I see no reason a person couldn't hang them up in a ristra and dry them.
Worth1 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 24, 2017   #17
Gardeneer
Tomatovillian™
 
Gardeneer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: NC - zone 8a - heat zone 7
Posts: 4,909
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Worth1 View Post
There is no pepper too thick to dry.
It all depends on the environment.
Look at the so called paprika type peppers.
One thing a person can do is to cut a slit in each one this helps out a lot.
There are some places you simply cannot dry a pepper without help and that is in constantly humid areas it just isn't going to happen without help in one way or another.
When I was on the gulf coast I had to put them in the oven on warm all day with the door cracked open.

In Idaho in the dry high altitudes I see no reason a person couldn't hang them up in a ristra and dry them.
Technically that is correct but in practice might not be the case.
The longer it takes to get dry, the higher the chances of rotting and growing mold.It has happened with Habanero, with me, many times.
But if you have a good dehydrator it can make the job easier. I like to get one (at reasonable cost !) that I can set my own temperature. Last year I bought one from WM. It was more like a cooker than dehydrator. I returned it.
__________________
Gardeneer

Happy Gardening !
Gardeneer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 24, 2017   #18
AlittleSalt
BANNED FOR LIFE
 
AlittleSalt's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 13,333
Default

What I think you all are talking about is drying them on a ristra or something similar? For me, it's too humid here to do that and expect a high percentage to actually dry and not mold first. I have a setup for drying peppers on a ristra, and it is fun, but being that it is too humid here - I used that setup for hanging Elephant Garlic instead last year. I had 100% germination doing it that way.

The way I dry peppers is to use an oven. I've never met a pepper I couldn't dry that way - even bell peppers. The easiest/fastest peppers I've ever dried are Shish!to and Banana. You would surprised how good those taste in the form of chili powder. It also makes your house smell very good slowly drying in an oven.

Another way to dry peppers is using your smoker. Mine is a 30-35 gallon drum smoker that I use seasoned oak along with a few green oak sticks. Use an offset fire around 250F and keep it going steady. Again you can dry and smoke any type of pepper that way.

I saw mention of drying peppers whole. I haven't tried that. I cut ours in half lengthwise.

Either method is not quick, but it's worth the time and effort.
AlittleSalt is offline   Reply With Quote
Old March 25, 2017   #19
dmforcier
Tomatovillian™
 
dmforcier's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: Dallas, TX
Posts: 3,825
Default

Alton Brown, in a Good Eats episode, shows a home-made dehydrator from a box fan, furnace filter, and bungee cord.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3JetOoEngs
__________________


Stupidity got us into this mess. Why can't it get us out?
- Will Rogers


dmforcier is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
drying , jalapenos

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 02:53 AM.


★ Tomatoville® is a registered trademark of Commerce Holdings, LLC ★ All Content ©2022 Commerce Holdings, LLC ★