First Batch of Dried Peppers and Garlic

[WALLE]

After all this talk about one's own chili powder, I'm jumping in with both feet.

I've got a mix of three peppers, all in various stages of maturity... I like the taste of all of them at these stages, so my plan is to grind them together along with some dried garlic. I'm also going to try and replicate the smoked Jalapeno Salt that Bassman gave me, so I smoked some kosher salt along with the peppers.

Here goes:

What we started with


Pepper and garlic carnage


In the smoker - there is a plate of salt hiding back on the top rack. Cold smoked for 2 hours with hickory








Stacking'em up




Ended up with five trays of jalapeno's, 4 1/2 of mixed anaheim and poblano, 1/2 of garlic. Drying gently at 125* since ~ 6:00 last night. I'm hoping that they will be ready to go when I get home.

Thanks for all the help from threads on drying peppers and from Alex and Gunny - much appreciated.

Tracey

[Richtee]

Nice stuff! A word of caution from Bro-in-law Smitty- CAREFUL where ya grind them... expect some pepper dust in the air. He had to evac his house a couple times ;{)

[SmokinLee]

Been there and done that ONCE. I wear a mask now. But ya know, The other day I cleaned a bunch of Hab's. for drying. when I brought the knife in to wash it, the fumes rising in the steam had me coughing and had to walk away for a minute.. Now I need to figure out what to do with these, I had quite a few and ended up with only 1 ounce dried.

Nice stuff! A word of caution from Bro-in-law Smitty- CAREFUL where ya grind them... expect some pepper dust in the air. He had to evac his house a couple times ;{)

[Hannibal]

After all this talk about one's own chili powder, I'm jumping in with both feet.

I've got a mix of three peppers, all in various stages of maturity... I like the taste of all of them at these stages, so my plan is to grind them together along with some dried garlic. I'm also going to try and replicate the smoked Jalapeno Salt that Bassman gave me, so I smoked some kosher salt along with the peppers.

Here goes:

What we started with


Pepper and garlic carnage


In the smoker - there is a plate of salt hiding back on the top rack. Cold smoked for 2 hours with hickory








Stacking'em up




Ended up with five trays of jalapeno's, 4 1/2 of mixed anaheim and poblano, 1/2 of garlic. Drying gently at 125* since ~ 6:00 last night. I'm hoping that they will be ready to go when I get home.

Thanks for all the help from threads on drying peppers and from Alex and Gunny - much appreciated.

Tracey

[Fishawn]

Very Cool Tracey!.... Keep us posted on your progress!

[sweet_magnolia]

Great job, Tracey! My nose is burning just from looking at the pictures.

[ALX]

Way to jump in tracey....I do my hotter peppers in garage as they can gas a little,but the smell is incredible.....

No doubt every process is different and when you find the way you like...Look out...

When i used those style dehydrators i would rotate the top and bottom etc.if bottom near fan was drying quicker....

You will also notice when you grind if they are not dry enough....They will clump etc..alot...No biggie...Just dry some more...Only so much moisture in them and at low temps they will not cook etc...

Let us know how garlic dries that way...I usually split in half and take core out and then slice in squares and freeze till needed....

[WALLE]

Thanks everyone.
Here are the anaheims and poblanos which were ready to go when I got home last night. I can't count... I had six trays of each instead of five...
some serious shrinkage on this project, but ended up with more that I thought - a good gallon zip lock full of dried peppers. Will be interested to see what they grind down to.



Japs and garlic still going. I was surprised at the drying difference between the two. Overall, they appeared to have the same wall thickness, I guess the jap is a lot denser?

On the garlic, yeah.... I should have chopped or quartered it. Ended up taking a knife to the larger pieces last night. Never even thought about them ahhh well

Both have a real good flavor. Can't wait to get the blender out out and start making some dust outta them.

I've already been banned from the kitchen on this project... probably a good thing.

Thanks for checking out my post. I'm hopeful that by the time I get home tonight, they will all be ready to go.

[Scarbelly]

Wow those look awesome - cant wait to see the results

[Bassman]

Looks like you'll have some fine chili fixin's there. I just want to be up wind from you when you start blending.

[ALX]

My red jap chipotles take 36 hours to dehydrate after smoking sometimes tracey....I do grow large ones,but they are thicker walled....

You will definetly find it takes alot of peppers to get a decent amount of powder....Especially things like paprika....

When i roast and dehydrate my NuMex green chiles(relleno type etc.) it is usually 10 pounds fresh picked to get maybe 1 pound pure powder....

[curious aardvark]

interested to know how smokey they seem after the drying.

I've smoked and dried chillis this year and come to the conclusion that it's much better to smoke them AFTER they've been dried. I definitely lost most of the smoke flavour when i did it the other way round.

[Abelman]

Those look great

I don't know if it was ever mentioned but here's something that will help with dehydrating them evenly. You have a lot of trays there, I only use 4 at a time but this will still help.

If at all possible, rotate the trays every 2 hours. Take the bottom 2-3 trays and put them on top. With 4 trays, I move them by ones. If you have the time to babysit them, this helps greatly in getting all the pappers done at roughly the same time.

[SMOKE FREAK]

Nice load of pepps there...I have barely begun this year...man I love the smell of drying peppers...Ill bet the garlic puts off an aroma that can be smelled for miles

[ALX]

Ill bet the garlic puts off an aroma that can be smelled for miles

Yes it does....I did 12 trays in 2 dehydrators a few months back.....Garden garlic,onion,shallots and leeks....

I could smell it from basement out at mailbox....Alaways a great smell to me...