# Homemade pepper powder~ a few words to the wise



## Cheryl aka JM (Aug 7, 2007)

Though~ I suppose if you actually are "wise" you would see these problems coming and would not need my hard earned words of advise~ Oh well~ for the fools out there like me.....

Homemade pepper powder! Wow is it good! I did it for the first time last year~ this year as I was prepping the peppers for the dehydrator I was thinking of all my.... unfortunate learning experiences....and I thought I'd share. So here goes~ Homemade pepper powder is delicious~ much better than store bought~ much more pepper taste with the heat ~ I like the heat but I also like the pepper flavor....the trick is to seed the peppers before you dehydrate them. No problem~

1. DO wear gloves. Ok~ thats an an easy one~ we all knew that. Wear gloves. Peppers are what PEPPER SPRAY is made out of after all. (WHY didn't someone remind me of that last year?) But surely it can't be THAT bad...right?...it's just a few ...dozen.... Jalapenos and those soft green peppers...Man some of them are just bell peppers....I'll be fine~ I'm tougher than I look... 

No you won't be fine. Get the gloves. Your not gonna feel it on your hands right away (that will come later, when your trying to sleep and your hands are on fire) ~ for now though you have all these lovely calluses on your hands (or at least mine do)....but later tonight~ after you've washed your hands about a billion times....your gonna make a mistake and tough your EYE....and God bless you if your EYE is the ONLY thing you touched! Do you have any idea how very MANY of your body parts react VIOLENTLY to a little capsaicin residue? And ladies....Your man doesn't think a little slap and tickle with that on your hands is funny....not even a little funny! As a matter of fact~ he appears to lose all sense of humour of any kind for a very LONG time after.

Wear gloves. Trust me. Just get the gloves!

2. Put the dehydrator OUTSIDE. The peppers smell WONDERFUL the first hour or two they are dehydrating. Then....you can't smell it anymore it's so pervasive through your home....then....you will never stop smelling it again it is so pervasive through your home!! It takes a dehydrator load of peppers about 24hours to get really good and dry.....put them on the porch~ go out there and they smell wonderful.....because you can escape the smell again by going back in the house.

3. DON'T MACE YOURSELF. I just can't overstate that. Just....really pay attention......DON'T MACE YOURSELF!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is a reason they call it PEPPER SPRAY and if you load a coffee grinder with peppers~ wizz them up and open it YOU WILL FIND OUT WHY!!!! Ask me how I know..... no~ You don't really have to dio you....you know I did it.... I'm that idiot~ "Duh...oh look it's seems to be a powder now I should open it and get a better look"

NNNNOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

You can store your dried peppers for however long you like in plastic bags or glass jars~ but when you are ready to make powder get a respirator and and your coffee grinder and GO OUTSIDE. On a clear STILL day. 
Step 1~ Put the respirator on.
Step 2~ Fill the coffee grinder with peppers
Step 3~ Take a DEEP BREATH (Trust me) HOLD YOUR BREATH!
Step 4~ Press the button to wiz the dried peppers into powder.....
Step 5~ BEFORE you pass out from holding your breath put the grinder down and run across the yard.....Breath there. Wait for powder in grinder to settle
Step 6~ take another DEEP breath~ run across yard~ quickly pour powder into end receptacle (remember our montra and DON'T INHALE!) repeat from step 2 only the deep breath taken at step 3 should be done from across the yard (If you can't hold your breath that long....then your probably an old exsmoker like me and should run across the yard to inhale as often as needed so as to avoid passing out while holding the pepper powder~ that would be hard to explain to the paramedics).

Again~ don't assume you can skip the respirator if your running across the yard to breath~ been there..tried that....it hurts. Also don't assume you can breath where you are whizzing up the peppers just because you are wearing the respirator....all that does is slow down the pepper.

Making Pepper powder is delicious and wonderful exercise.
You'll be running back and forth across the yard all afternoon!
Good luck!
Enjoy your pepper powder!!


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## unregistered5595 (Mar 3, 2003)

Excellent post! Thanks!

I second dehydrating and grinding things outside if at all possible.


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## oakridgewi (Dec 12, 2006)

Bad day here in the ER, thanks for lightening it up!!!

Anyway, I grind my hot peppers with a blender, a small mouth canning jar fits my blender, NO need to transfer to different container. Just hold your breath, unscrew blender thingy, and quickly replace with jar lid!

Thanks again


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## Cheryl aka JM (Aug 7, 2007)

Oh my~ ER~ hope you didnt do something so silly as to mace yourself bad enough to require the paremedics (usually handsome young men but seems a bit much to mace yourself just for a peak at them). .... 
Seriously though~ hope your feeling better ~
I don't own a blender....but I may watch for one on Craigslist if a jar will fit that way


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## oakridgewi (Dec 12, 2006)

Oh, I WORK the ER, I'm one of those paramedics. Though not 'specially handsome, and umm, not young even, but I am a 'medic!


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## Cheryl aka JM (Aug 7, 2007)

When one has done something especially stupid any paramedic who is saving your silly self is 'specially handsome! LOL! I"m glad you didn't hurt yourself!


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## blynn (Oct 16, 2006)

This reminds me of the time my husband was grinding up horseradish in a blender for the first time. I made him take the blender out into the garage. He thought I was being silly, but I wasn't, was I?  and then he leaned over the blender to take a sniff... It was very cleansing for his sinuses. Some people have to pay good money to get them that clean!


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## Wolfy-hound (May 5, 2013)

Oddly enough, my husband learned some of those lessons. Use gloves.

Don't dehydrate in the house or it will feel like someone pepper sprayed you when you walk in 3 hours later. Use gloves.

We ground the peppers in a blender with a snug lid. The trick was to grind, then leave it for at least ten minutes or so. No need for masks, because it didn't escape and waiting let it all settle in the blender before opening.

Use gloves. Did I mention the gloves?

Don't open a ziploc baggie of pepper powder and "sniff" it to see "if it's really hot". If you are young and full of yourself and want to impress everyone with how hot stuff doesn't bother you, just realize that lying on the floor crying doesn't impress many people.

Use gloves.

Realize that while you're wearing gloves, it doesn't protect your other items from getting residue on them when you touch them while wearing the gloves. If you pick up those items later on after you're finished, they still have that residue on them. Key note: Don't touch your drinking glass and forget you did it and drink later on. Super spicy soda? Not good.

And use gloves.

Oh and one last thing, don't store cinnamon/sugar mix in the same type of baggie because although it looks like pepper powder... they don't taste the same AT ALL. But if you need a way to instantly ruin a 5 gallon pot of homemade chili? That's the way.


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## Cheryl aka JM (Aug 7, 2007)

LOL! Yes~ today after being so very very very careful to use my gloves....I rubbed my eye with the back of my wrist when it started itching.....
NOT FAR ENOUGH away from the pepper on your gloves!
My eye is STILL watering~ and I made sure.....my EYE is the only thing I touched with my unprotected wrist!


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

Y'all funny!


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## jkhs (Sep 17, 2010)

I have to add to this list, that you probably shouldn't use your husband's new coffee grinder, either. All that residue is pretty hard to clean out and for some reason, he won't really appreciate "hot & spicy" coffee. :shocked:


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## Guest (Sep 23, 2013)

I had to laugh at reading your post! Not that I mean touching your eye and causing you severe pain..I just as of 3- weeks ago started dehydrating the scotch bonnet pepper...after 24-hrs the peppers were still mushy..so .o finally realized that it was because i left them whole...yes so you can guess where this is going..I took all of the peppers out to deseed them..I found my box of gloves empty so I just started deseeded them by hand..did all of them and put back in the dehydrator..about a half an hour later my hands were on fire..I tried everything you could think of to relieve the pain..nothing helped..i couldn't even touch my own skin as it felt like my skin was more on fire than my hands...I cried on and off for hours..I really thought I was going to have to head to the ER the pain was that bad! It finally subsided 9-hrs later..I finally was able to go to sleep at 5:00 in the morning..I will NEVER EVER do that again! A matter a fact I hate hot spicy anything period! Did it because my family loves spicy..not worth it to me to ever try it again even with gloves..


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## Buckhuntr (Oct 4, 2012)

I once processed about three gallons of mixed hot peppers for homemade hot sauce. No gloves. :stars: . My hands tingled for DAYS. Worst part was answering the call of nature when I finished with the sauce.  
Btw, soap and water does nothing to cut the burn.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

I did a bunch of banana peppers without gloves. Fortunately I learned then USE THE GLOVES!!!! Yes my hands tingled for a couple days. DH was mad at me for a couple days (don't ask). Thank God they were only banana peppers and not jalapenos or the thai hots I've had this year. 

The reason Capsaicin P works for arthritis? When you burn that bad you forget about the arthritis pain!


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## Buckhuntr (Oct 4, 2012)

Danaus29 said:


> I did a bunch of banana peppers without gloves. Fortunately I learned then USE THE GLOVES!!!! Yes my hands tingled for a couple days. DH was mad at me for a couple days (don't ask). Thank God they were only banana peppers and not jalapenos or the thai hots I've had this year.
> 
> The reason Capsaicin P works for arthritis? When you burn that bad you forget about the arthritis pain!


 Tell your DH he's lucky it wasn't habaneros.


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