Jim Graham wrote: > How well do food dehydrators work for chiles? Do the peppers maintain > their flavor and heat? Or does it screw them up? > > I'm looking for a way (without the high-salt + vinegar mash[1] or > freezing[2]) to preserve peppers from my garden until I'm ready to > use them, which could be the same day, or it could be a month or > more...and, of course, habs don't store well, even in the fridge. > > Any suggestions on brand/model (can't spend more than about $30), > settings, etc.? > > Thanks, > --jim > > [1] I *REALLY* don't need all that salt...and I dislike the taste > of excess salt. I DO have a salt shaker somewhere...but I don't > know where it is. > > [2] Any time I freeze peppers, they get all mushy when thawed. If > someone knows a way to prevent that, please let me know! > > Jim: I used a dehydrator to dry about 120 or so habaneros I harvested at the end of the season last fall. It took about 16-18 hours to dry them completely with the dehydrator set on high. I seeded and halved the peppers before doing the dehydration. The process worked very well, to the extent that I was able to make powder out of the majority of the dried chiles. The model I had was the basic Ronco (without a fan) and up to six stacking trays. A friend gave me his, but I had previously priced them at Target for around $39. Another idea for freezing, if you don't want them to get mushy, is to freeze with dry ice. I've never done this but I recently saw a bit on The Food Network where Alton Brown did this with strawberries. Apparently freezing with dry ice doesn't cause the cell damage that conventional freezing does, so the mushiness isn't a factor. Hope this helps, Jonathan