# Trying my hand and smoking hot peppers.



## grit (Sep 27, 2014)

Had a bunch of peppers from my potted plants (in five gallon pails) and wanted to give a try at smoking/drying to grind into a powder.  Started off at low temp  around 170 and after a bunch of reading bumped it up 250ish.  About five or six hours total time in the smoker, I kind of lost track of it.  Seems the Thai Chilies could  use longer if needs be tomorrow I will toss them back in with no smoke.

Habaneros













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Thai Chili













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Bhut Jolokai













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Here is a shot of a the finished product.













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Cannot wait to make a powder of them and perhaps make my own homemade "chili powder".


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## themule69 (Sep 28, 2014)

That looks very good. When I grind peppers. After they have all been ground I put some rice in the grinder and grind it. It soaks up the oils. I thin use it for fried fish or chicken breading.

Happy smoken.

David


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## mdboatbum (Sep 28, 2014)

Wow, funny to think of habaneros being one of the milder examples in a post about peppers. I'm guessing those ghost peppers will get your attention!


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## grit (Sep 28, 2014)

David, that is a truly fantastic idea for cleaning up the grinder, which I need to pick up one up in the next couple of days. Quick question are you using a coffee grinder or a food processor for your grinding?

-  James


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## themule69 (Sep 28, 2014)

Grit said:


> David, that is a truly fantastic idea for cleaning up the grinder, which I need to pick up one up in the next couple of days. Quick question are you using a coffee grinder or a food processor for your grinding?
> 
> -  James


A small food processor. It does well for me. 

Happy smoken.

David


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## themule69 (Sep 28, 2014)

You are doing enough that a big one should work fine. I do them in a lot smaller batch.

Happy smoken.

David


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## grit (Sep 28, 2014)

Mdboatbum said:


> Wow, funny to think of habaneros being one of the milder examples in a post about peppers. I'm guessing those ghost peppers will get your attention!


They did I chopped of a piece about 2mm by 2mm and popped it into my mouth for a chew.  The flavour was a tad bitter (the other peppers are not bitter) though the heat was wonderful eye opener.  Truth be told these peppers were an experiment this year to see if I could grow them at all and to see how my conditions would effect the heat.   One Bhut Jolokia and two Habanero plants I am transplanting later today from 18 litre (five gallons) pails to 77 litre (20 gallons) rubbish pails I just bought this weekend to see how they increase my yield for next year.  The Thai might see a similar transplant if the non-smoked ones on the plant have a decent heat profile, back in July when I tried one of my Thais I found it lacking.


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## themule69 (Sep 28, 2014)

You can also use crackers in place of rice.

Happy smoken.

David


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## grit (Sep 28, 2014)

Corn flakes would work as well I take it?


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## grit (Sep 28, 2014)

themule69 said:


> You are doing enough that a big one should work fine. I do them in a lot smaller batch.
> 
> Happy smoken.
> 
> David


SWMBO is suggesting I just use the blender, I am not big on the idea as it has a small base and seems to be a lot of fiddling about to grind up those peppers.


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## themule69 (Sep 28, 2014)

The corn flakes would work well. I have never tried to use a blender. It should work for small batches. I think a food processor would do a better job. But work with what ever you have. That's the good thing about it. Their are no rules.

Happy smoken.

David


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## grit (Sep 28, 2014)

I am thinking I will just borrow my friends processor and when I am finished with it give him some powder to feed his chili addiction.


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## themule69 (Sep 28, 2014)

Grit said:


> I am thinking I will just borrow my friends processor and when I am finished with it give him some powder to feed his chili addiction.


Their you go. If you were my neighbor I would go for that any day 
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






.

Happy smoken.

David


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## grit (Sep 28, 2014)

themule69 said:


> Their you go. If you were my neighbor I would go for that any day
> 
> 
> 
> ...


All I have to say about that is


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## grit (Oct 2, 2014)

Here is a minor update, after grinding up the Thia and habs I have decided I will wait until I can bring home my half-piece respirator before I grind up the Bhut Jolokais.













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As you can see the wife decided to inject a bit of humour into the labels she made for me. So on it went anyways might be a well needed warning.


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## brooksy (Oct 2, 2014)

Oh yeah you should have warned to do it outside and hold your breath!


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## grit (Oct 2, 2014)

I knew better, though I was being a bit lax in using a safe procedure as it was late and I had decided to do it last minute.  The thais were ok the habs on the other hand I should of done outside, weekend is coming up so I will hold off til then and do the job properly.


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## riverrat3 (Oct 3, 2014)

I just ground some ghosts for my wing dust a couple weeks ago. About an hour of burning throat and runny nose. Mask is a must.lol Got about 30 more peppers to harvest think I'll try smoking them now. Yours look great.


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## welshrarebit (Oct 4, 2014)

Make sure you wear gloves and wash your hands BEFORE going to the bathroom!


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## bertman (Nov 1, 2014)

I've never ground them because I was worried about breathing, and I'm afraid they would lose too much of the smoke flavor if broken down that much. I usually dehydrate them and keep them in a zip lock bag. When I want to use them, I'll boil a little water, add the dried peppers to the hot water to let them soften, then mince them. These are awesome in taco meat, chicken chili, venison chili, etc. They are the secret ingredient in my white chicken chili.

I found this thread because I picked what was left of our pepper crop today (we had our first hard freeze last night) and smoked them today. Based on some feedback from a similar thread, I also froze a few this time around.


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## empacee (Dec 5, 2014)

Grit said:


> Here is a minor update, after grinding up the Thia and habs I have decided I will wait until I can bring home my half-piece respirator before I grind up the Bhut Jolokais.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


LOL Welcome to the world of grinding superhots my friend. Try doing peppers that make Ghost Peppers look like Habaneros. I grind my Scorpion and Reaper peppers outside only, wearing disposable gloves and a dust mask.

I find a cheap food processor works well for a rough grind and then I use a cheap coffee bean grinder to make it powder. And no, these grinders dont get used for anything except peppers. LOL

P.S. If you want to step the heat up and try something hotter than Ghost, PM me, I have plenty of seeds to share. My avatar is of a Carolina Reaper, world's hottest pepper, hands down!


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## grit (Dec 21, 2014)

Empacee said:


> LOL Welcome to the world of grinding superhots my friend. Try doing peppers that make Ghost Peppers look like Habaneros. I grind my Scorpion and Reaper peppers outside only, wearing disposable gloves and a dust mask.
> 
> I find a cheap food processor works well for a rough grind and then I use a cheap coffee bean grinder to make it powder. And no, these grinders dont get used for anything except peppers. LOL
> 
> P.S. If you want to step the heat up and try something hotter than Ghost, PM me, I have plenty of seeds to share. My avatar is of a Carolina Reaper, world's hottest pepper, hands down!


First off sorry for the tardiness of my reply, between getting ready for Christmas and sucking back all the overtime I get my hands on to help pay for it, battling for computer time with the kid, I have just not made it to all the places I would of liked too.  I am going to be moving outside next year for my grinding of super hots.  As well I will be picking up a blender just for that job as I found out I did not get all of the oils out when I went to make my protein shake, a nice lovely surprise it was, been dabbling in adding heat to them now. 

I would love to step up the heat though wifey says to wait and see what the kiddo is putting in my stocking, so I will PM you shortly after I see the surprise that is awaiting me.


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## empacee (Dec 21, 2014)

Sounds good to me. Yeah its hard to wash capcaisin from these super hots off of cutlery and dishware.


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