RE: [CH] botulism and other nasties....
T. Matthew Evans (matt.evans@ce.gatech.edu)
Tue, 4 Dec 2001 14:28:29 -0500
Hi, Keegan --
My grandmother grows one chile plant every year, typically containing
shortish, red, thin-walled chiles. These are usually labeled "Hot Pepper"
at the nursery where she buys them. Well, she lives in a different state,
so I don't get many fresh ones from her, but she always puts the plant
either in her root cellar or tobacco barn at the end of the season and
forgets about it. Thus, the chiles dry entirely on the plant. When I go
visit her for Christmas, I pull all of the dried chiles off of the plant and
take them home with me. This (obviously) isn't very scientific, but I
haven't had any problems yet....
Matt
> I picked them all and am drying
> them, to be
> ground into powder, but I have started to wonder if during their (very)
> excessive over-ripening period, they may have become host to
> anything nasty.
> Can anyone tell me if I'm making a deadly powder here? I am
> drying them VERY
> thoroughly at low temp in the oven. Many are thin-walled chilies
> (super H,
> cayenne) and dried almost completely on the plant, but I also have some
> banana, hot-wax, chinese....