how do you air dry cayenne peppers?

Question

i dont have a dehydrator so i was wondering....

Answer 1

This is the best way: put the peppers in a brown paper bag, such as a lunch bag. Lay the bag on it's side and put the peppers in there so they are not touching each other (wear gloves!!). Then, put the paper bag in your car when it is going to be parked in the sun a while. Put the paper bag so that it is on the dashboard or in the rear window. After a while the peppers will dry very nicely. You can also do this with any herbs or whatever you have that you want to dry.

Answer 2

To dry chiles, individual fruits can be picked and strung in a "ristras" or entire plants can be pulled in the fall before frost and hung in an outbuilding or basement to dry.
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/veggies/peppers1.html

Let the cayenne dry as much as they will on the plant. To prevent mold: After harvest, remove them from the plant by cutting them so that a short portion of stem remains on the fruit. Dip the peppers into a bath of 1 part Chlorox and 9 parts of water. Lay the peppers so they don't touch each other. Dry for 3 to 4 weeks inspecting and discarding any that start to spoil.

The oldest & most popular way to dry cayenne peppers in chile producing countries is to tie them to a chile string, called the "ristra" & hang them up to dry. Pick the pods when the color has developed fully. Dry in a location where the air circulates freely. If hung inside a home in a damp climate, there is a good chance that some of the chiles will rot, so it's best to dry outside.

The smaller chile varieties can be used to create wreaths and other shapes & can be used as decorations.
Here's a look at the decorative way it's done:
http://www.fiery-foods.com/dave/drying.asp

Good luck & get creative while you string them up;) After your peppers dry, you can use an inexpensive electric coffee bean grinder to make the chili powder. Hope this is helpful.

Answer 3

You can dry them laid out on a cookie sheet in your vehicle in the summer. Make sure the vehicle stays in the shade, it will still get hot enough in there to dehydrate them properly. In a hot vehicle, you can expect them to be dry within a week. A dehydrator takes about two days for cayenne and they turn out beautiful. We have about twenty quart canning jars of them that we dehydrated just this year.

Answer 4

What I have done in the past is tie the tops of the peppers (leave a bit of stem on when you pick them) together using thread, and hang them upside down in my kitchen. It worked great. FYI, you can get dehydrators for about $40 or $50 at Wal-Mart...well worth the investment if you also grow herbs.

Answer 5

I think they tie them upside down and let the hang and they should air dry quite nicely. I am not of course positive but I will give you a link where you might find out better.

Answer 6

Tie them into small bundles and hang them in a cool, dry area away from the sun.