Drying peppers - what's the best way to do it?

This is how peppers can be dried, ground and preserved

Drying method for thick and thin peppers:

oven
Drying cabinets
Dehydrators
Air drying

Thick-fleshed peppers can only be dried in the oven, drying cabinets or dehydrators. Thin-fleshed chilies like cayenne are also suitable for air-drying. Every drying method removes a lot of water from the pods and reduces bacteria and microorganisms. Peppers are preserved and prepared for grinding into chilli powder or crushing into coarse pizza peppers.

Thin-fleshed peppers for air-drying

Aji Yellow (Amarillo)
Andy (Hot Cayenne)
Cayenne
Zimbabwe Birdeye
Piri-Piri

Thick-fleshed peppers for the oven, drying cabinet or dehydrator

Anaheim
Romanian
Apple sweet
Caribbean Red
Hot peppers

Air dry peppers

Pull chilli pods on a stick with a needle on a string and hang up like a clothesline. Then let it dry in the warm shade at 15 ° degrees with the roof window open.

In chilli countries like Hungary or Mexico, peppers are still dried in the traditional way with braided chains - risttras - that hang on the house wall. It takes 3 to 6 weeks to dry.

Dry the peppers in the dehydrator

Thicker peppers are best dried in an electric dehydrator. Hot air blows up through the sieve trays from below. Water is withdrawn from the chillies. It smells all over the house and sometimes your eyes water when the peppers are hot. Depending on the device and type of chilli, drying can take eight hours. When the dried pods have cooled down, immediately put them in an airtight can.

Grind paprika into powder

For milder paprika or chili powder, remove the stems, cups and seeds from the pods before grinding. Then remove. Then grind the pods into powder in an electric coffee grinder. Or pound into coarse pizza pepper with a mortar.

Tips & Tricks

To preserve peppers, you can soak them in vinegar or oil. Or dry, grind and use as a condiment. Pickled peppers are suitable as an accompaniment to meat at a barbecue party or as an appetizer.