Dehydrator ideas

[wally]

We have been Canning our peppers to store. My sil.would like me to dry some peppers for him. Would I be better off to process as harvested or freeze cut up peppers and process all at one time. I have a 9 tray Excalibur and just can't see to use only one or two trays at a time

[feather]

If it was me, I'd save the energy, and cut up and freeze them, until I had a full dehydrator full of them. Last time I was running my dehydrator for months at a time, Excalibur, it was costing me about 10 dollars/month, running all month.

[wally]

Thanks feather that was my thoughts

[Deleted]

Nothing else to dehydrate? I find all kinds of things and fill it up. Only things I worry about are onions, I do them by themselves but if all used together I don't worry about them either. Don't like to freeze onions or peppers and then dry them....James

[wally]

James, could I ask why

[Use Less]

Is that green or red peppers, like Bell peppers? I didn't care for them dried at all. Always worth a small trial run to decide if you like the product.

[here to stay]

I dry as they come ripe. That is one thing I like about dehydrating versus canning. For me canning is such a process that it's too much work for a little bit of produce whereas dehydrating is no big deal.
I have jars if dried green pepper slices along with their more colorful aged relatives and hot pepper slices in small half pint jars labelled according to heat so I know how each of each to use.

I mostly grind them as needed so they are flavoring rather than solid chunks.

[Deleted]

The cells start to break down and they get watery. Flavors change....James

[horseyrider]

Jul 19, 2017 2:26:22 GMT @jwal10 said:

The cells start to break down and they get watery. Flavors change....James

I agree with this. Frozen then dehydrated and rehydrated is a LOT of processing; and it yields a product with a texture like wet Kleenex.

I accumulate a reasonable batch in the fridge, then dehydrate. I might do compatible veggies at the same time, such as tomatoes or green beans; but not strong flavors like garlic or onions, or delicate ones like apples or blueberries.

Peppers are wonderful to dehydrate.  You don't need to blanch if you don't want to.  You can saute dry and add to liquids, and get the same wonderful flavor.  They do best with a long slow simmer, like in chili. But they're also terrific for a sprinkle of color and flavor in things like canned cole slaw.  Mmmm, autumn food....

[grannyg]

Watermelon

www.excaliburdehydrator.com/wp/recipe/watermelon-jerky/?utm_campaign=recipe&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com

[feather]

Canning peppers. Green peppers, they turn yellow and red if you let them ripen. It takes a pound of peppers for a pint of peppers.

How many peppers did peter piper pick? A wind/rain storm knocked down 8 peppers, those weigh 2 lbs 12 oz, so it's about 3 peppers per pound. To make canned pints, 10 of them I'd need 30 peppers.

3 peppers/lb = 1 pint canned.

With green peppers /red/yellow sweet bell, they need to be washed, cored and chopped.

With hot peppers, like the hatch peppers I'm growing, they need to be roasted and peeled, then chopped.

I'm keeping my peppers in the drawer in the refrigerator until I can accumulate enough to can them.

[Use Less]

I didn't care for dried green peppers, either.

[Deleted]

I prefer my peppers frozen. Canning turns them into mush, and dehydrating... meh. Don't like the texture.

But in a grid down situation, I'd take dehydrated over jarred.

[feather]

Aug 4, 2018 0:32:05 GMT Use Less said:

I didn't care for dried green peppers, either.

a few years ago, I was making a cheesy nacho powder, to use on tortillas or popcorn. It used tomato powder and green pepper or hot pepper powder. (and cheese powder and spices and salt--but I don't have that recipe anymore)

[mogal]

Aug 4, 2018 13:50:42 GMT feather said:

Aug 4, 2018 0:32:05 GMT Use Less said:

I didn't care for dried green peppers, either.

a few years ago, I was making a cheesy nacho powder, to use on tortillas or popcorn. It used tomato powder and green pepper or hot pepper powder. (and cheese powder and spices and salt--but I don't have that recipe anymore)

Wish you did, that you could find it or play with it until you replicated it.  Hint, hint.  

[feather]

mogal,
My thought was to look at the dorito chip bags, so I googled this.

Recipe #3: Following the bag

Resorting to culinary plagiarism, I tried to copy the Doritos® ingredients list straight from the bag. Extracting everything that seemed to be a flavoring (not a chip ingredient), I combined onion power, garlic powder, MSG (Accent) and salt along with the cheese powders (which also contained several milk-based ingredients from the list). This blend got me on the right track. However, I was still missing some key players simply because they’re not available in the store: tomato powder, red and green bell pepper powder, and Romano cheese (not available in powder form).

The unobtainable ingredients proved to be my downfall. (I briefly considered hijacking a Sysco truck for the industrial-grade flavorings, but the thought of explaining my motive to a jury put me off the idea.) The Romano cheese would add some much-needed sharpness and pungency to the cheese component, and the pepper powder must contribute something despite the innocuousness of bell peppers in the flesh. But the tomato powder seemed to be the clincher; without it, all was lost. So I decided to improvise…

That was from: www.networx.com/article/kitchen-experiments-diy-doritos

And if you are going to buy the powdered cheese, which I've done, it's expensive. I'm going to give a shot at taking some of my strong flavored cheeses, like romano, and shredding them and dehydrating them, then grinding them in the food processor, to see how that turns out.

The green pepper and tomato powders really add to the flavor to make it more dorito-ish. I then added salt and ground it together in a spice grinder, to make it very powdery, which was nice to make it stick to the chips or popcorn. (like popcorn salt is finely ground, it sticks better to things)

[grannyg]

Check out this recipe...http://www.oneacrevintagehome.com/recipe/banana-bread-fruit-leather/link