Rex Trulove
Whether you are a gardener that has the good fortune of having an abundance of peppers, or someone who happens across an excellent buy at the store, the peppers need to be stored if you get a lot of them. There are several ways to do it, such as canning or freezing, but a space-saving method is to dry the peppers. Once they are dried and as long as they are kept that way, the peppers last a very long time.
Reasons for air drying
Air drying is being specified here for excellent reasons. Many people use their ovens or food dehydrators to do it and that isn’t a bad thing. However, they are settling for a product that isn’t the best it can be.
Put as simply as possible, whether in an oven or a food dehydrator, the drying is done by using heat. Heat destroys the volatile oils that give the peppers their flavor and aroma. This is true of both sweet and hot peppers, though it tends to be most noticeable with hot peppers because they lose a bit of their piquancy or bite.
It doesn’t take much heat to start destroying the volatile oils, either. At temperatures above 80 F/26.7 C, the oils begin to evaporate quickly. The higher the temperature, the faster the peppers lose their flavor and aroma. Both food dehydrators and slow ovens generally heat much more than 80 F. and ovens are worse than dehydrators. In fact, even air drying may get above this temperature on a hot day. However, air drying still retains more of the oils than either of the other two ways of drying the peppers.
Secondary reason to air dry
Drying peppers with the use of heat also tends to discolor the peppers. This isn’t related to the flavor, but air drying retains more of the color of the peppers. This adds visual appeal when the peppers are reconstituted and used. Heat dried peppers often turn yellow instead of staying green or red (depending on the kind of pepper.)
The disadvantage of air drying
There is a disadvantage to air drying, however. Since heat isn’t used to drive the moisture (and volatile oils) out of the peppers, it takes longer to dry the peppers than it would in an oven or food dehydrator. Instead of drying within hours, air dried peppers can take days to over a week, depending on the size of the peppers or pepper pieces, the temperature of the air, and the amount of humidity of the air.
Drying the peppers
Ideally, start with a dark, dry room in the house, where the peppers can dry without being bumped or jostled. The reason ‘dark’ is mentioned is that sunlight can also destroy flavor and aroma, due to temperature variance. This is exactly the reason that it feels cooler in the shade than it does in full sunlight.
As a side note, there is a craze in many places to use “sun dried tomatoes”. Just as peppers taste and smell better if they are dried out of the sunlight, tomatoes do too, despite the fad.
Method 1: Screen drying
Screen drying is very much like it sounds. A fine screen is supported high enough off of other surfaces to allow for air circulation all the way around the peppers, as they dry. Screen door mesh screen is ideal, whether it is actually on a frame or not, as long as the air can flow freely under as well as over the screen.
Food dehydrator racks can even be used, as long as they are propped up to allow for air circulation.
Simply place the peppers in a single layer, spaced so they aren’t quite touching, and allow them to dry until brittle. There is no need to turn them since the air is getting under them.
This method is the best for small peppers or diced peppers.
Method 2: String drying
With this method, the peppers are tied to string or twine that is stretched across the room, allowing air to get to the pepper from all sides.
Since the peppers hang from the string, this method is favorable for drying whole peppers or pepper rings. It also allows far more peppers to dry in much less space. In the case of the former, the whole pepper is hung from the stem using a double loop. In the case of the latter, the string can be passed through the center of peppers that have been cut into rings. This is a superb way to dry bell peppers and wax peppers, but it also works well with larger hot peppers like jalapenos, Anaheims, and Poblanos.
Storage of dried peppers
In both cases, the peppers are done when they are brittle.
Once dried, the peppers can be stored in jars with tight fitting lids. We’ve had air-dried peppers that have lasted for longer than a year and which were still quite tasty and safe once they were finally used. It is also simple to turn the dried peppers into ‘pepper flakes’ for seasoning purposes, by just crushing them to the desired consistency. Since they are air dried, they are still full of flavor.
Have you ever wondered how the pioneers of the ‘olden times’ dried their food for storage? Now you know. My grandmother was drying peppers and the like in this way during the early 1900’s before there was electricity for fancy things like ovens and food dehydrators.
Loved this info. Would like more info as to how pioneers preserved and dried more foods. Such as green
Beans. Will peppers dry ok if in an almost dark room?
Certainly. As long as the air is dry and warm, no light at all is needed for drying them. They’ll even dry if the air is dry and cool, but it takes longer.
Incidentally, there are many ways to preserve green beans. They can be canned, dried (not my preference), pickled, or brined. My grandmother preferred to simply can them in mason jars. Carrots, on the other hand…well, that is another article. LOL Thanks for the idea for an article!
Loved this info. Would like more info as to how pioneers dried and preserved their foods. Such as green beans etc. Peggy
I’ll see what I can do to write up some articles about that. My grandmother was quite pioneering, though she was born around 1902. Still, it was much later that she had her first refrigerators (in the 1950’s, I think) and she and my grandfather had a farm, so she had to preserve everything. Theirs was a family of 10.
Wonderful post! Makes me want to get my pepper on.. lol
I love peppers! Great info indeed
Thank you. I’ve already dried my first batch of peppers. I’ll be starting another batch before too many days have gone by.
Very informative. Thanks
You are quite welcome!
Great information! I too remember when my grandmother would try peppers. Your photos are amazing.
Thank you. I actually prefer air drying to blanching or freezing and the flavor remains a lot longer. I personally feel that storage is also much easier.
Hey, this is a wonderful post, thank you. I like the idea of grinding them into pepper flakes when they’re done. Any suggestions for what else to do with then once they’re dried?
The rings, chunks, and even the smaller whole peppers can be put into soups and stews, or soaked in water to reconstitute them and can be cooked in omelets, rice dishes, cooked with pot roasts, pork roasts, beef roasts, or added to filling for stuffed chicken or turkey…there are a huge number of ways that they can be used. Reconstituted, they are even great in stir fries or as a compliment to curries.
Fantastic, thank you so much. Looking forward to trying it out!
When you do, please share what your favorite way to use them is.
Well, that’s something useful indeed. Very much obliged.
You are very welcome.
I, like you, air dry my peppers. Thanks for letting people know how to do it since its simple.
I prefer doing it this way when we get a great pepper crop, so you are very welcome. I agree about it being so simple.
Very comprehensive post-Rex. I am not a big fan of peppers because I don’t like the heat or taste of most of them. My Mom would sometimes make sweet peppers in tomato sauce with sausage, and that tasted really good. I have a palate like a toddler sometimes! LOL
Tweeted this post for you, too.
Thank you for the tweet!
This works with bell peppers, too. I like using dried bell peppers for seasoning in things like homemade Italian salad dressing. I also add the crushed, dried bell peppers to spaghetti sauce, chili sauce, and barbecue sauce (though I don’t always include that ingredient in my recipes.)
What a great illustration for all!
Thank you so much, Carol!
really good
Thank you.
I’ve always used the string method, but I use fishing line. Plus it looks cool when theyre drying.
Fishing line is a great idea! I use garden twine or heavy yarn, mostly because when I dry the rings, the fibers help prevent the individual rings from sliding together.
Ah, I did have that problem. I will try garden twine next time, Thank you!