Rustic kitchens are traditionally decorated with bunches of dried red hot pepper, garlic and onion. Such a composition is considered not only a stylish element of the interior, but also a pantry of products that will always be at hand. Dried peppers, garlic and onions release essential oils that enrich the air with useful substances and reduce the risk of infectious and colds. How to properly dry hot peppers at home so that all the beneficial substances are preserved in it?

Methods for drying hot peppers

It is convenient to dry the pods at home in various ways: you can dry them in the air, in the oven or in an electric dryer.

Air drying hot peppers

The natural method is used for drying whole and crushed hot peppers.

To dry the whole pods, they must be strung on a thread, having previously made holes just below the stem. The elements that make up the "sharp beads" should not come into contact with each other. After that, the garland is placed in a dry, well-ventilated area and dried until cooked.

If drying is carried out on paper, every 2 days it is necessary to replace old sheets of paper with new ones, as it tends to absorb the juice that is released from vegetables. By replacing, you can get high-quality peppers.

How to dry peppers in an electric dryer

Drying hot peppers in an electric dryer is a great way to dry the vegetable and keep all the nutrients in it. Peppers need to be prepared, laid out on each pallet in one layer, turn on the dryer at full power and dry until fully cooked.

During drying, it is necessary to stir the hot pepper pods so that they do not stick to the grate. Crushed pieces of hot pepper dry much faster. In 6 hours you can get good dried vegetables.

Drying hot peppers in the oven

Before sending the pepper to the oven, it must be crushed. Then, spread evenly on a baking sheet, send to the oven, where, at a temperature of + 55 ° C, dry the pieces for 3-4 hours. Sometimes the drying time may be longer.

Attention! Leave the door open while drying vegetables in the oven. This will allow the peppers to dry out rather than scorch.

Only the finished product needs to be taken out of the oven, otherwise the pepper will not be stored.

How to check readiness

During drying, pepper pods wrinkle very much. In addition, their color becomes more saturated. The fragility of hot pepper is the main indicator of product readiness.

Hot pepper is a favorite seasoning for many housewives. It has not only unique taste qualities, but also useful microelements and vitamins. There are several ways to prepare a spicy vegetable for the winter, including drying. This is the easiest option to save it. But when choosing a drying method, you need to remember that the final sharpness of the pepper will depend on this. It depends on the selected variety, and on the content of capsaicin, and on watering, and care during cultivation.

How to choose and prepare pepper?

You can dry both Bulgarian sweet peppers and bitter chili peppers. The basis of success is the correct choice and preparation of vegetables. First, sort them. You need to select pods with a uniform, glossy, green or red color. There should be no damage, inclusions, and even more so rotten spots.

Even the smallest flaws, small dots of black or orange, are a reason to reject the fruit. Such peppers are not subject to preservation for the winter.

Preparing hot peppers does not take much time. Selected pods must be washed, preferably under running water. Dry with a paper (cotton) towel. Next, it needs to be dried. To do this, they are placed for a couple of days in a warm, dark room (possibly in a box).

Safety measures before work

Capsicum is a very hot seasoning and when working with it, certain rules must be observed:

• it is necessary to carry out all work with pepper only with gloves. You should not hope that then it will be enough just to wash your hands - the burning seasoning eats into the skin and you will have to wash it more than once;
• until the work is completed, you can not touch sensitive areas of the skin, and even more so to the mucous membranes (rub your eyes);
• if the pepper is cut during cooking, it is important to ensure that the juice or small particles do not get on the mucous membranes, in the eyes;
• when the work is finished, wash the gloves with dishwashing detergent.

Drying hot chili

Dry hot peppers at home, either whole or chopped. Before grinding, it is cut lengthwise, the stalk is removed and the seeds are cleaned. Then cut into half rings about 0.5 cm wide.

Way to dry in the oven

In order to properly dry any vegetable to full readiness, you need dry air and moderate heat. An oven (electric or gas) is ideal for this. Necessary:

1. Prepare a vegetable.

2. With this method, the pods can be taken whole or chopped.

3. Heat the oven to 50 degrees.

4. Spread the pepper strictly in one layer on a baking sheet previously covered with baking paper.

5. Put the baking sheet in the oven, but do not close the door, otherwise the vegetable will simply bake.

6. Monitor readiness: the time depends on the amount of pepper and its integrity (cut or not).

7. Stir occasionally.

Usually such drying takes from 3 to 5 hours.

air dry method

There are two ways to dry the future seasoning in the air: on a newspaper and hanging on a rope.

In order to dry on paper, it is laid out on a wide windowsill and pepper is scattered in one layer, periodically turned over. It will be enough for 9-10 days. The method is not the most convenient, it is suitable only for a small number of vegetables and assumes the presence of wide window sills.

Newspapers absorb moisture well, so they are changed every 2 days.

Rope drying allows you to create as many bundles as you like. Mushrooms, apples, and many other vegetables and fruits have been dried in this way for many centuries.

For drying on a rope, the room is important. It must be ventilated and dry (balcony, attic, "summer" kitchen, etc.).

To dry peppers on a rope:

1. 1. Prepare the peppers.
2. 2. Take a needle with a wide eye, thread a strong long thread.
3. 3. String peppers on a rope like beads.
4. 4. Remove the needle and fasten the rope where needed and at a comfortable height.

Basic rule: peppers should not touch each other. So they will dry evenly and will not rot.

On the vegetable rack

A very convenient way. It is necessary to purchase a dryer for mushrooms, peppers and vegetables. This is a fine-mesh grill with fairly high legs. It is attached to the plate. And then:

• the burner is turned on, the power is determined by the average;
• vegetables (almost any that can be dried) are laid out on the grate in one layer;
• dry for about 3 hours.

How to use an electric dryer?

An equally useful thing for any housewife is an electric dryer. It is even easier to use than a vegetable dryer:

1. 1. Arrange vegetables (fruits, berries, herbs) in one layer.
2. 2. Turn on at full power according to the instructions.
3. 3. Dry, stir occasionally.

Vegetables are dried in this way for about 12 hours. Be sure to stir so that the pepper does not stick to the grate.

The spiciness of red chili peppers is determined by the content of the chemical compound capsaicin, which acts on the nerve endings of the skin and taste buds. Sweet varieties of bell pepper do not accumulate capsaicin, while some varieties of red capsaicin contain an excess amount of this substance.

The principles of drying sweet and hot red peppers are quite simple, but there are subtleties. Let's take care of them.

What you need:

• Red pepper
• strong thread
• Mortar and pestle or food processor
• Container tightly sealed

More about spices:

How to dry red pepper

1. String the pepper on a thread with a needle, piercing the pods just below the stalk and pulling them tightly. Hang the resulting "necklace" in a warm, dry place, well lit by direct sunlight. Dry continuously for several weeks.

2. After drying, the pepper should be sorted out - the pods damaged during the drying process, as well as those that are too wet, should be discarded.

3. Use a mortar and pestle to grind the peppers, but it is more comfortable to grind the chili peppers in a food processor. The grinding process is considered complete when a homogeneous red powder is formed, which is packed in a dry, airtight container. Store red pepper in a dry, cool place in an airtight container.

What else is useful to know about drying peppers

To soften the taste, dried chili peppers should be carefully removed from the seeds before grinding. By the way, seeds can be used as seed material next season.

Spicy spices for various dishes entered human life many thousands of years ago: people grew and used them in the Neolithic era.

One of these seasonings is the spice chili pepper, without which most spicy dishes are indispensable: adjika, sauce of the same name, Mexican soups, etc. We will learn how this hot seasoning is dried at home, how you can pickle it, and what dishes to cook to please spicy lovers.

Dried chili peppers: harvesting at home

What to do with the crop of hot peppers? Part of the crop can be pickled, the rest can be dried and ground to add to different dishes.

Preparing Peppers for Drying

Drying pepper requires preliminary preparation:

• Selection of raw materials for drying. We sort the peppers, selecting for drying evenly colored fruits that are not affected by spots or other damage.

We pay special attention to chili peppers with orange speckles: they are rejected without regrets, and it is better to throw them away.

• Pepper washing. We thoroughly wash the selected pods and lay them out on paper towels so that the water is glass.
• Drying chili peppers. We leave the washed peppers in a warm place for a couple of days so that the air draws out excess moisture from them. If you decide to dry whole pods, the preparation process is complete. Otherwise, we cut them across, take out the seeds and legs, and cut into small half rings with a maximum width of 0.5 cm.

Let's be careful! Since pepper is a burning plant, in order to avoid getting juice on the face or eyes, we do all the work of processing the pods in waterproof gloves. When finished, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water.

Methods for drying red hot pepper

Dried chili peppers can be prepared in many ways: consider each of them.

How to dry hot peppers in an electric dryer

To dry peppers with this device, do the following:

• Put the dried peppers on the grills.
• We dry them in an electric dryer at full power for 12 hours, occasionally turning the raw material over so that it does not dry out on the grates.

If you are drying chopped peppers, the drying time is 6 hours.

How to dry chili peppers in the oven

To dry the peppers for further grinding into powder, we use the oven:

• Finely chop the peppers without seeds and legs.
• We lay out the pepper raw materials on baking sheets.
• We heat the oven to 55 degrees and put the baking sheets for 4-5 hours, occasionally mixing the raw materials.

Keep the oven door ajar all the time to keep the peppers from frying.

How to Dry Red Hot Peppers Naturally

To dry the crop of peppers in the air, we do this:

• If you decide to dry the whole peppers, we string them on a thick thread, piercing the fruit with a needle below the legs.
• We hang pepper garlands in a ventilated, dry place and wait until they dry.
• If you need to dry chopped peppers, lay out the raw materials on sieves or paper (newspapers). We place in the same place for 10 days, and mix regularly. Every 2 days we change the paper in order to better dry the raw materials.

If you dry peppers in winter, hang the pods over the radiator, and they will dry no worse than in an electric dryer.

How to understand that the pepper is dry? It becomes darker, shrinks heavily and breaks easily.

Dried chili spice can be stored as it is dried or ground into a powder. You can grind peppers with a regular coffee grinder.

Dried peppers are stored in three ways:

• Pour the powder into a glass jar, close tightly and put it in a cool place without light.
• Pour ground pepper into a glass jar, cover with gauze in several layers and put it in a dry place without light.
• Pour the pepper into a jar, close it and put it in the freezer compartment: this way it retains the smell and taste even longer.

Dried chili peppers can be stored for a year. And if you keep it whole, you can decorate the kitchen with pepper garlands.

Pickled hot peppers

Ingredients

• Hot peppers - 700 g;
• Sprigs of dill and cilantro (parsley) - 6 pcs.;
• Sprigs of mint - 2 pcs.;
• Salt - 2 tsp;
• garlic cloves - 2 pcs.;
• Coriander powder - 4 tsp;
• Sugar - 4 tsp;
• Lavrushka - 5 leaves;
• Wine bite - 2 tsp;
• Black peppercorns - 10 pcs.;
• Allspice peas - 5 pcs.;
• Carnation - 3 pcs.

How to Pickle Hot Peppers

To prepare a spicy side dish for meat dishes, do the following:

• We separate the leaves of greenery from the stems, and discard the stems.
• We wash the peppers with cold water and make holes next to the stalks.
• We put a pot of water and pepper on the fire and boil for 5 minutes. We drain the water, fill it with fresh water, and boil again. In total, we perform three such procedures.

• We make a marinade by adding peppercorns, lavrushka, coriander powder, cloves, granulated sugar and salt to the water, flavored with wine vinegar.
• After boiling, cook this platter for three minutes and cool without removing the lid for a quarter of an hour.

• We fill sterile containers with chopped garlic and hot peppers and pour the marinade.

We roll up the blanks, wrap them up and wait until they cool down. After a week, you can serve pickled chili along with baked, fried or boiled meat.

The use of hot pepper in cooking

The sharp burning taste of chili pepper, so adored by men, is in demand when cooking meat and fish dishes, marinades for various preparations for the winter, sauces. It is added to various spice mixes and combined with plants such as bay leaf, etc.

Here is how it is used by different nations:

• Italians use chili in their arrabiata sauce.
• The Hungarians make the famous paprikash with it.
• The Chinese add hot peppers to the classic gongbao dish.
• Mexicans eat chili desserts and make spicy meat sauces.
• Thais do not think without pepper salads and soups.
• Europeans add it to dairy products.

Chili is no less popular among Indians, Koreans, Japanese and other peoples of the world. It is added to chocolate desserts and other sweets, sausages, bean and pasta dishes.

We suggest cooking a couple of dishes with a lot of chili peppers so that you can appreciate its taste.

Chili sauce

Ingredients for 6 servings of sauce

• Chili fruits - 100 g;
• Small garlic - 0.5 heads;
• Salt - 0.5 tsp;
• Sugar - 0.5 tbsp;
• Olive oil - 0.5 tbsp;
• Apple or wine vinegar - 1 tbsp;
• Starch - 0.5 tsp

To treat yourself to a spicy spicy sauce, follow the step-by-step recipe:

• We wash the peppers and remove only the legs.
• Divide half a head of garlic into cloves.
• Cut the garlic cloves and peppers into pieces and grind in a blender.
• We shift the chopped products into a saucepan and mix with vinegar, salt, granulated sugar, starch and olive oil.

Attention: if you need a liquid sauce, do not add starch.

• We put everything on the stove, bring to a boil and remove from heat.

Chill the chili sauce quickly by placing it in the freezer or over ice. Ready-made sauce is good with any meat cooked in any way.

Mexican chicken

Ingredients

• Chicken - 1 kg;
• Soy sauce - 4 tablespoons;
• Cognac or vodka - 2 tablespoons;
• Onion - 1 pc.;
• Chili pepper - 2 pcs.;
• Sweet pepper - 4 pcs.;
• Ginger powder - 1 tablespoon;
• Anise - a few seeds;
• Starch - 0.5 tbsp.

How to cook Mexican chicken

To stew spicy chicken, do the following:

• Cut the bird into medium-sized pieces and fry on both sides to make a crust.
• We mix alcohol with soy sauce in a saucepan or stewpan and simmer chicken pieces in the mixture.
• Cut the onion and peppers of both types, mix with ginger and anise.
• Add the resulting mixture to the meat and continue to simmer.

Dilute starch with water, pour into a saucepan with chicken and simmer until the meat is completely cooked. The dish turns out sweet-spicy and unforgettable!

Now you know how the chili pepper spice, loved by many peoples of the world, is used and harvested. Use this healthy spice in your favorite dishes, enriching them with a spicy spicy taste.

Red hot (bitter) pepper is a seasoning with a burning taste, which is widely used in culinary business to give a spicy taste to meat dishes and soups. Gourmets add it (at the tip of a knife) even to black coffee. In cosmetology, it is used to improve hair growth.

In medicine, it is part of the plasters, tinctures and ointments used for colds, diseases of the joints and spine. Red pepper is an excellent prophylactic against heart attack and cancer. It gives the vessels of the circulatory system elasticity, removes bad cholesterol from the body.

Mankind has been using red pepper for food and in the treatment of various diseases for more than one century, for this purpose it is harvested for the winter in the form of a dried spicy seasoning, in its natural and ground form.

Pros and cons of dried peppers

Dried and ground hot peppers are the optimal and classic way of harvesting fruits as a seasoning that people have been using for centuries. It is used both for adding to ready-made dishes, and in the process of preparing them.

In addition to drying, hot peppers are harvested at home by freezing and canning.

• Frozen pods can be used in cooking, but they are not added to the finished dish.
• Pickled or canned red peppers are used as a spicy snack.

Selecting and preparing peppers for drying

Any hot pepper is suitable for drying, both ripened and not gaining mass in late autumn. Fruits (even small ones), plucked by unripe green ones, turn red when dried, and they have a burning taste throughout the entire period of growth and formation of the pod. Hot pepper, depending on the variety, is yellow, dark brown, green and even black.

The main condition for harvesting is the absence of signs of spoilage on the fruits.

Preparing the pods for drying at home does not take much time and does not require complex procedures. If the peppers are soiled with earth, they are washed with cold water, wearing gloves in advance.

The seeds of the fruit contain the greatest amount of burning substance, so those who do not like a very spicy seasoning can dry the pods, first cutting them into slices or rings and removing the seeds. Usually peppers are dried whole.

Ways to dry hot peppers

You can dry the fruits naturally in the open air or indoors, using household appliances: an oven or an electric dryer.

• Air-drying the pods does not require much hassle. If the weather is warm and not rainy, they will very quickly reach the desired quality. In damp weather, peppers will dry indoors.
• If the hostess is not satisfied with the appearance of the kitchen, which is disturbed by hung fruits, they can be dried quickly (in a few hours) in the oven or within a day in an electric dryer. Drying in the oven will require attention and control so that the fruits do not burn and dry out. Dried pods quickly crumble, crumble.

How to dry hot peppers

Air drying:

1. The pods are strung on a thread (piercing at the base in front of the stem) in the form of a garland or vertically in the form of a braid.
2. Threads are hung on an open veranda, balcony (in good dry weather) or indoors (in rainy weather).
3. Sliced ​​pods are laid out on kitchen trays or sheets, after laying them out with paper, which is then thrown away, since it will absorb a large amount of a burning substance.
4. The cut is scattered in a thin layer, covered with gauze and taken out to ventilated rooms, it is possible to dry the cut if there are no members in the family with allergies.
5. The cut is stirred daily.
6. Whole pods are dried for up to 2 weeks, depending on weather conditions, cuts are dried for up to 10 days.

Drying in the oven:

1. The fruits are dried in the oven with the door ajar so that the vapors come out.
2. Whole pods are turned over every hour, chopped are mixed.
3. The pods are dried at a temperature of 60-80 degrees for up to 6 hours, completely cooled and the quality of the dried fruits is checked.
4. In well-dried pods, the seeds are poured when shaken with a characteristic loose rustle.
5. The cut is dried up to 3 hours.
6. If necessary, the fruits are dried for a short time.

Drying in an electric dryer:

1. Sliced ​​pods are laid out on special dryer stands and dried at a temperature of 50 degrees for 4 hours.
2. Whole pods are dried at a higher temperature - 70 degrees, from 6 to 8 hours, depending on the size and thickness of the walls.
3. First, the temperature controller is set for a shorter time, after cooling, the quality of drying is checked, if necessary, the pods are dried.

Dried fruits should not have a moist core. Overdried pods quickly crumble and crumble.

Tricks of high-quality drying of hot pepper

Red pepper has a burning property due to a substance of organic origin called capsaicin. Like all organic substances, capsaicin is volatile, quickly spreads through the air and penetrates well into substances and tissues of organic (and not only) origin. Therefore, people can dry sliced ​​​​pepper (to reduce the drying time) only without an allergic reaction to spicy and aromatic substances.

After work, all tableware and kitchen utensils must be thoroughly rinsed in several steps with running cold water to wash off any remaining capsaicin. The use of hot water will lead to the evaporation of a substance with water vapor into the air, which, even in a healthy person, can cause lacrimation and swelling of the mucous membrane of the nose and throat.

When working with pepper, it is necessary to wear rubber gloves, and after finishing work, it is better to throw out the gloves, since it is almost impossible to wash them from the burning substance.

How to store the workpiece, shelf life

Red pods, strung with a garland or in the form of a braid on a thread, are a beautiful addition to the interior of the kitchen. But in this form they can be stored for a short time. In the kitchen, dry and warm air (with the heating running), the pods lose their attractive appearance very quickly. Peppercorns lose their luster, the original red color, the pods crumble.

Therefore, for long-term storage, it is better to grind hot peppers dried in any way in a coffee grinder. Rinse the coffee grinder thoroughly several times with water.

Ground peppers are stored in plastic or glass jars with screw caps.

Dried and ground pepper retains its taste and burning properties until the new harvest and longer. Expiration can always be determined by taste.

How to use dried hot peppers

Peppers, dried with whole pods at home, when preparing boiled and stewed dishes, are put in the cooking process, whole or breaking off part of the pod. When the dish is ready, the peppercorns are taken out, otherwise the dish will become very hot.

Pour the ground pepper into the pepper pots. It is added to the finished dish to taste immediately before eating.