Dried peppers not spicy?

[tomjharris]

Hi, everyone. My name is Tom, and as you can see, I'm new here. I have absolutely no experience with smoking meat. I just stumbled across your site because I have a question and I can't seem to find anywhere else that's more applicable.

I love peppers, and I planted WAY too many in my garden this year to feasibly use while fresh. I dehydrated a bunch of them--jalapenos, serranos, anchos, even a couple of habaneros--to make powders from them to season chiles and salsas. They were finally finished this morning, and I took them out. I don't know what I was thinking, but I popped a jalapeno seed into my mouth just for the rush--and there was nothing. There was a slight pepper flavor, but nothing else. I bit off a little piece of ancho with the same result. I even took a LITTLE nibble of habanero and felt just the faintest spice on my tongue, but certainly nothing near what I should have gotten.

Now, I know that this forum might not be perfect for my question, but I found nowhere more suitable. Does dehydrating peppers rob them of their spiciness, or do they need to be cooked or something for the spiciness to come back?

AND, if this is the wrong area to be asking, does anyone have any idea of where to point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

Tom

 

[joed617]

Hi Tom,
I've smoked and dried habinero's and Jalepino peppers and they still had the heat in them. I keep them in a large jar on the shelf and grind them as I need them. I've not experienced any heat loss at all. The smoke added an earthy flavor to the peppers. The only question I `would have is did you bite into a pepper before you dried them and if did they have the heat you expected?

Joe

 

[tomjharris]

No, I didn't. I tried one of the serranos later, though, and it burned the hell out of me. It's just odd that the other three peppers didn't seem to have much spice. I would have figured nibbling off a piece of habanero would melt my face off. Anyway, thanks for your response.

 

[pigcicles]

Isn't it great when you come to a surprise like that!? Kind of makes you feel warm all over.. the whole time you're trying to get rid of the heat.

Glad you found your own answer. Don't run off, hang around and look for or post some recipes

 

[lostinfl]

I smoked some jalapenos for my neighbor last week for his homemade salsa. He said they turned out good. He ate it all before I could get a taste. Oh well he provided me with a cold beer so fair trade.