Cayenne Peppers - What is the secret....

[Deleted]

... to cutting them up in preparation for dehydrating them?

I picked a bunch this morning and intended to dehydrate them for a chili powder and use in a homemade bug repellant which I spray on the veggies.

I know that they are a hot variety so I was extra careful when handling them.  I wore latex gloves and made sure that my hands came nowhere near my face.  I brought them into the kitchen and started to de-cap them, remove the seeds and slice them into strips.  I got through about eight of them and that was all she wrote.  I could feel my throat tightening and my eyes starting to tear.  By the end of the eighth one I was coughing, sneezing, blowing snot all over the place and crying like a little girl.  I walked away for a bit and everything settled down.   

Intent on getting these things dehydrated, I dragged the dehydrator out to the porch and after just de-capping them on the porch, I simply placed them on the trays whole and with the seeds still in them.  I turned the dehydrator on, but it is fairly humid here and it might actually take a month or two for them to finally crisp up enough to grind into powder.

So what is the secret to working with these things and not reacting to them like I just got maced? 

Also, due to the outside humidity levels it may take quite a while to finish them off.  If they are, let's say, 50% or so dehydrated, is it safe to then bring the dehydrator back into the house and finish them off without an equally bad reaction?

I do not know exactly how hot these peppers are.  I got the seeds from Southern Exposure and neither the package that the seeds came in, nor the website offer any additional information as to how hot these buggers are.  Here is a link to the website --->  Cayenne Peppers

[okiemomof3]

i don't do anything to mine. i leave them in the dehydrator completely intact. i break off the stem end later after dried. i do this on porch until completely done.

[Skandi]

I dry mine whole as well. though I put them on cotton and in a warm dry place, and then finishe them to a crisp in the oven.

[horseyrider]

I leave them whole too, sometimes stringing them up. But usually I put them in the food dehydrator and get the heck out of Dodge.

[Deleted]

I just string mine whole and let hang.


Rockpile

[Deleted]

Well....

The cayenne peppers have been dehydrating out on the porch for about 27 hours and are pretty dry.  I thought that I would further dehydrate them inside the house for a few hours just to get the last of the moisture out of them.  They have been in the house for the last two hours or so and so far no slobbering reaction.

I will wait until this weekend to grind them into chili powder.

[Deleted]

They do dehydrated faster if you cut them up or at least cut a couple of slits in them. I always dry my peppers in the house. I have never had a problem doing it this way and I dry peppers that are much hotter than the ones you are working with.

[paquebot]

I've always hung mine from clotheslines in the basement, whole plants. They were hung close to the furnace and are usually dry enough to grind by January. No way would I try to dehydrate them in the house!

Martin