RE: [CH] using a dehydrator to dry chiles? (update/new question)
John Sphar (chilehead@pacbell.net)
Mon, 14 Jul 2008 10:18:25 -0700
A note on the persistence of capsaicin: Of course you are right, Jim. We've
all encountered those episodes! Can I tell a story? It's not the one about
wiping my son's butt when he was an infant (I think I already related that
one), but something that happened only recently. I have a bunch of Smart N
Final plasic squeeze bottles for storing sauces, and for mailing my friends
and family. I reuse them. A couple weeks ago my wife bought a big bag of
Valencia oranges for me to squeeze. So I squeezed them, and I store juices
in the same squeeze bottles and never had a problem. This time we had one
bottle that we squeezed for orange juice for a couple days. It added an
almost imperceptible smoky flavor (no heat) to the OJ and we both loved it!
(She is a non-believer). This was good s__t. The other bottles had no
comparable flavor. I figure that bottle had chipotle puree in it sometime in
its recent past. So I guess, maybe if you add a tiny bit of chipotle puree
to OJ it might be acceptable to regular folks. Has anyone done this?
John S.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-chile-heads@globalgarden.com
[mailto:owner-chile-heads@globalgarden.com] On Behalf Of Jim Graham
Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2008 4:14 PM
To: chile-heads@globalgarden.com
Subject: Re: [CH] using a dehydrator to dry chiles? (update/new question)
On Sun, Jul 13, 2008 at 06:39:52PM -0400, Jonathan Smillie wrote:
> Sandy's answered your jerky question, so I'll address myself to the
> flavor-related one. It's like drying any food - you are losing the
> fresh burst of flavor that the water-rich flesh of the peppers
> carries; on the other hand, you're getting a more cured, concentrated
> flavor because it's being carried in less of the original weight.
Sounds like, in the end, no change (or rather, the two changes offset).
Is that right?
> As to heat - trust me, if you decide (as I did) to grind them for
> powder
I'm only drying them out to preserve them without having to freeze them (I
don't like mushy peppers) or use the vinegar/salt combination used in a mash
(I prefer to avoid the salt completely, and limit the vinegar to what I put
in hot sauce...and that's assuming that's what I'm using them for). I
intend to use them exactly as I would use freshly-picked peppers from the
garden. They may go into hot sauce, they may go into jelly, preserves,
etc., they may go into a curry, who knows.... The point is, I'll be able to
wait until I'm ready to use them without having to worry about them going
bad.
Oh, and btw...I know what you mean about grinding.... I use red savina
habanero powder, among other things, in my Magick Dust, and grind it all
into a super-fine dust in the blender. Even with protection (surgical mask,
lab coat, brewing gloves & boots[1], long pants, long sleeves, eye
protection, etc.) it still gets everywhere...and then I have to transfer it
from the blender to the spice bottles.... <grin>
Later,
--jim
[1] gloves up to the elbows, boots up to the knees, all chem and heat
resistant
--
73 DE N5IAL (/4) MiSTie #49997 < Running FreeBSD 7.0 >
spooky130@cox.net || j.graham@ieee.org ICBM/Hurr.: 30.39735N 86.60439W
My policy on spammers:
"Castrate first, ask questions later."