I also hang hot peppers, don't use the dehydrator for them. My dehydrator is in the kitchen, was a nice 77 degrees this morning running all night for the bell peppers. I will take out to the porch, if I decide to dry onions. Cutting hot peppers has never bothered my hands, but stupid me, a few weeks ago, forgot I had chopped jalapenos earlier, rubbed my eyelash...YEIKS! Was at the neighbors, had to say a quick goodbye cause I couldn't open my eye. Went home to a 20 minute yogurt mask. Yogurt is great for stopping the heat, or you can use milk or ice cream, BTW. Dairy products contain casion (sp) to reduce the caspium receptor. Water intensifies. I just canned up the Ball recipe for Hot Sauce, used 4oz jars to pass around and everyone loves it so far..me I think I will reduce the sugar for the next batch.

Yes, I agree with Tsheets. It all depends on how hot you dry them, how long and what kind of peppers you are drying. The amount of peppers in your dehydrator also has a significant affect on how long you will have to dry them. Also consider that if you have warm humid summers, it is going to take a lot longer to dry them if you do it outside or in the garage as apposed to in a cooler and less humid home. But drying hot to super hot peppers is best done outside the living area regardless. You will likely just have to experiment to find out what works best for you, your dehydrator and the conditions you are working with. But you should be able to semi dry almost any pepper to the consistency you desire. Just for the sake of trying it, you might want to throw a couple whole peppers in there without cutting them open. They will dry much slower but will likely retain some moisture much longer than if they are cut open. That might give you the consistency you are looking for. Bruce

The price is for powdered Scotch Bonnet peppers. Here's the rub they'll be used in. This recipe is from a jerk shack in Boston Bay, Jamaica, that I got from the cook in August 1982. Boca Boys Jerk Rub Recipe - use this on anything you want to jerk, even fish! ====== 4 tablespoons Ground allspice 4 tablespoons Dried thyme 4 tablespoons Ground Scotch Bonnet Pepper 2 tablespoons Freshly ground black pepper 2 tablespoons Ground sage 1 tablespoon Ground nutmeg 1 tablespoon Ground cinnamon 2 tablespoons Garlic powder 4 tablespoons Brown Sugar 1 cup dried Chives

Drying them isn't my only option... but it is specifically what I'm growing these particular peppers for, drying for spices. I've already been getting in lots of peppers for my canning, and I don't usually freeze peppers because the family usually don't like the way they cook up once defrosted. I tend to prefer to dehydrate from fresh, but was planning on smoking some of the peppers this year anyway. So I think I'm going to go with smoking up a batch tomorrow and freezing them off. Then when I get the "main crop" that is looking like it will all turn at once I can have a fresh batch to dry plus a separate bunch of smoked ones I can dry too and have smoked and unsmoked powders.