On 9/30/2010 7:51 AM, Jonathan Smillie wrote: > 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? Not high tech, but, as I have mentioned before, I mix in ground oatmeal with my pepper powder (ground very fine) and it works great (about 1 part ground oatmeal to 4 parts ground peppers). The oatmeal gives the powder a silky consistency, and the powder doesn't clump at all, even in dispensers (shakers with wide holes in the top) that sit out all of the time. -- ____________________________________________ J. Patrick Donohoe, Ph.D, P.E. Professor Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering Mississippi State University Box 9571 Mississippi State, MS 39762 Email: donohoe@ece.msstate.edu j.donohoe@ieee.org Office: Simrall Hall, Rm. 312 phone: 662-325-2180 fax: 662-325-2298 ____________________________________________