The folks at Milk Street use a lot of Aleppo Pepper flakes in their recipes. So we decided to grow them this year to make our own for the pantry.
After growing them, we dried them in our solar food dryer and then crumbled them into bits. Read on for the process and an important lesson learned from the experience…
It Started with a Seed
We started our seeds indoors in February and planted out in April. The plants took a while to get going, but with organic fertilizer and compost, they eventually started producing fruit. We harvested about 5-6 peppers by the end of the season from one plant. That was plenty for our project.
We cut them in half and dried them, cut side up, in our solar food dryer, as shown in a rather fuzzy screen grab of this social media video we’ve shared:
Leave all the seeds and veins intact. That’s where the heat lives! Once they’re crisp, we brought them inside, put them in a bowl and crushed them into flakes.
A Big Lesson!
They look innocent, don’t they? Like bell peppers but maybe with a little heat. Right…
The next day, my hand was absolutely on FIRE! Even with washing my hands after crushing the peppers bare-handed, the spots between my fingers and the back of my hand were throbbing. So, what have we learned?
- Wash your hands with DISH soap, not hand soap after handling peppers with high Scoville units. Hand soap is not designed to remove grease and oils. Dish soap is. You can also pour milk over your hands to deactivate the capsaicin (the ingredient that makes peppers hot). OR:
- Wear gloves.
The result was a half-filled half-pint jar of beautiful, fragrant chili flakes that will store in the pantry for upcoming recipes. I can’t wait to try them out.
Have you grown your own chili peppers? Share your experience in the comments below.
