To make powder, I thoroughly dry the peppers, then use a coffee grinder.

It really helps to use thin-fleshed varieties. Jalapeños and rocotos dont dry well, but aji (c. baccatum) types dry very well.

I crush cayenne and thai hot ornamental into flakes for my pizza.

Pasilla Bajilo and Chile Guajillo dry very nicely too.

We do lots of powders. We use a dehydrator to dry the chilis whole or cut in half. Then we store the dried whole chilis and only grind up what we need at the time. We use a coffee grinder to grind into a powder. Storing them as whole chilis in glass jars or sealed plastic bags helps keep staleness from developing.
If you want a smoked powder, smoke your pods on a bbq pit/smoker before you dehydrate and then you can have a great smoky flavor.
My faves that we do are a smoked red serrano, smoked sandia, thai flakes for pizza, chiltepin smoked or unsmoked.

kendra

Freezing the pods before dehydrating ruptures the cell walls and makes dehydrating them faster.

Cut pods in half and place cut side up on the dehydrator shelf. If preserving color, flavor and heat is important to you (it is to me) then dehydrate at no higher than 125°. Seeds need be removed only from C. pubescens species. I often carefully scrape the seeds from the placenta of other species just because I want to preserve the ripe pod color as much as possible.

Thick fleshed pods such as jals and rocotos I often slice or quarter. I don't like slicing much because some juice is lost during dehydrating. (also the reason to put halved pods cut side up)

What's fun is dreaming up additions to the basic dehydrated pepper powders. Dehydrated cheese, smoked sea salt, dehydrated garlic, dehydrated onions, dehydrated tomatoes and on and on. And fermenting the peppers before dehydrating is proving to be very worthwhile.

Have fun!!

jt

I have a question when you refer to a coffee grinder do you mean a inexpensive blade grinder or a burr grinder?

Mark

smoked red serrano are my favorite

I use a cheap blade grinder--and reserve it for peppers.

john

I use a cheap electric coffe grinder, bought for about $20 at walmart.

kendra

i use a $20 coffee grinder from also walmart (wife works there) i grow up to 50 types and dry in dehydrators dry till the seeds rattle.then grind. i agree with john only chilis in the grinder unless you like hot coffee
dan
let it burn

The year I grew purple cayenne's they produced so many peppers (what a beautiful plant!) that I dried the extra and made chili powder - I thought it turned out really nicely. I didn't use a dehydrator - just hung them, but at the time I wasn't even sure what I was going to do with them all! A dehydrator would have speeded the process up. I'm not an expert on chilis but know what I like! I'm hoping to try to make some smoked chili powder this year - sounds wonderful!
Karen

Caribbean Reds and Hot Lemons!

One makes a very nice red powder and one makes a nice yellow powder. CR's make a very HOT powder and the Hot Lemons are more subdued.

I smoke both for about 1 hour at low heat with hickory or mesquite and then finish off in a dehydrator. Then, I grind them up in a coffee grinder.

I don't like to oversmoke because it tends to make the powder more bitter. A little smoke goes a long way.

I use both powders to make dry rubs and also to add to dishes that need a little BAM.

They're also great as XMAS presents!

Thanks everyone for your great responses! I am looking forward to trying my hand at making some different pepper powders and rubs. I have a dehydrator, that I haven't used yet, so will finally get to use and a spare coffee grinder.

Thanks again
Sandy

I sure like Bob's suggestions!

The others were good too. Mesquite wood is a great for smoking, but a little really, really goes a long way. Pecan wood from Texas is my favorite. Pellets (not the Traeger brand) can take a lot of the guess work out of smoking. There are quite a few different woods available. I use lump charcoal for the initial fire and dump either pellets or wood chunks on top for the smoke. No petrol flavored briquettes allowed in my grills or smokers. (such as Kingsford)

Lemon Drop (C. baccatum) has gotten more favorable responses than any of my other powders. There are similar C. chinense varieties that are just as lemon flavored.

Red ripe jalapeño powders are one of my personal favs. Any C. pubescens (rocotos/manzanos etc) make great powders.

jt

jt - what do you do regarding fermenting the peppers before dehydrating?

Sandy

Sandy,

Oh my... that is a lengthy discussion. I must say that I am getting very favorable reviews on the fermented mashes. Especially the dehydrated fermented pepper/onion/carrot mash. I pour the finished ferment onto special dehydrator trays, dehydrate and grind up. Please note that tomatoes can overpower the taste of a mash so use less than I did in my last post on pepper/onion/carrot.

This link pretty much covers more than anyone wants to know..

Here is a link that might be useful: Lactic acid fermenting

jt - I checked the linked thread on Lactic acid fermenting. I read through and am now printing it, and all it's attached side links, for further reading and education. I have lots to learn on fermenting, since I hope to give it a shot this coming fall.

My youngest daughter goes through so much Louisana Hot Sause that I hope I can make some differnt sauces that will please her pallet. She puts it on over 1/2 of what she eats.

Later
Sandy