Re: [CH] Spice mill or grinder - Follow-up

Terry Pogue (tpogue@comcast.net)
Thu, 30 Sep 2010 09:45:49 -0400 

I think you'll find the 5200 model vitamix with the variable speed dial you best bet. Watch the videos on the Vitamix site and you'll see what I mean. There is also a "dry" grind container that grinds rice or other things like that into powder. I think that will be what will work for you best for your dried chiles. I am ordering two of the dry grinders today for the two 5200 model machines I have bought. I'll use mine for making confectioners' sugar, rice and chicken pea flour. many many things. I have found that I use the VM more and more as I get to know the machine. It's no toy - trust me. This is the machine you'll find in professional kitchens.
terry
ps. you'll not need to modify the blades for flours. You'll have to try it on the dried chiles but I wouldn't think you'd have to but then I supposed on lots of things.

  Terry Pogue 

My Foodie Photos 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/terrypogue/collections/

On Sep 30, 2010, at 8:51 AM, Jonathan Smillie wrote:

> It sounds like the VitaMix might be the way to go. Thanks to all who recommended it; I will hunt around for one. I have one of those "as seen on TV" dehydrators as well... I've used it to dry a couple of generations of chiles and quite a few years' worth of rosemary and basil leaves as well.
> 
> The other question I have is (and the VitaMix approach might deal with this) - I find that no matter how well I dehydrate my chiles, after the powder has sat around in jars or bags for a while, it tends to clump a bit because of residual moisture (either in the chiles or perhaps local humidity). There's the old trick of putting a few grains of rice in with the powder to absorb moisture, but has anyone done anything a bit more high-tech? Food-grade silica gel, for example? What have you had your best results with?
> 
> On 9/28/2010 5:50 PM, Terry Pogue wrote:
>> One of the gals on my VitaMix list uses chop sticks to get any bit up from under the blades. Don't know if that would help with chiles or not
>>   Terry Pogue 
>> 
>> My Foodie Photos
>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/terrypogue/collections/
>> 
>> On Sep 28, 2010, at 11:04 AM, Uncle Steve wrote:
>> 
>>> I use almost the same method. To make the process faster I removed the blades from the "dry" Vitamix  canister and sharpened the blunt edges to very sharp.  You can adjust your final product to a very fine powder to corse flakes by adjusting the speed, time and the volume of peppers you grind at one time.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> At 9:54 AM -0400 9/28/10, Jeff Thompson wrote:
>>>> For large batches of peppers, I use an old "as seen on TV" food dehydrator
>>>> to dry my peppers (in the garage, else my wife would kill me) and then use
>>>> my Vitamix blender, with the dry/grains container, to grind them...
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Enjoy the heat,
>>> "Uncle Steve" Nearman
>>> 
>>> ~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~
>>>          Uncle Steve's HOT Stuff
>>> Anything&  Everything about Chiles
>>>          http://usHOTstuff.com/
>>> ~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~
>>