In particular, I’d like to make Garlic powder and cayenne powder. How would I make these? How about any other frequently used spices?
Basically, dry them and process into a powder. I’ve never done my own garlic powder, but with chiles, I usually would buy a string, hang it up to dry, and put it in a coffee grinder. You can vary the heat of the resulting powder by adjusting the amound of chile seeds before you pulverize.
If you look around, you can buy many herbs and spices in their whole forms, rather than powdered or ground. Or, as **pulykamell **says, dry it yourself and then process. A good food dehydrator is helpful, but not mandatory, unless you live in a really damp environment. Harvest your herbs, shake off any bugs, dirt, etc. (Wash if you feel you must, but know that you’re upping your chances of mildew - I know what I grow is safe and as clean as it needs to be, so usually I don’t wash.) Lay the herbs in a single layer on paper - brown grocery bags are wonderful for this. Find a dry, preferably dark place to do this. Once or twice a day, turn your herbs over. In a few days, depending on the herb, they’ll be dry. Put them in airtight glass if you can, zipper seal plastic baggies if you must. Don’t forget to label your container. You may think you’ll never forget that this bag is lemon verbena. You will forget.
Do not harvest any plant for eating or medicinal purposes if it grew within 25 feet of a roadway, or 50 feet of a busy street. Many plants will absorb nasty stuff from car exhaust.
Be aware that once you powder or grind something, it reduces it’s useful shelf life, since there’s more surface area prey to oxidation and more area for essential oils to evaporate from. I like to keep things in the largest size possible - whole cloves, whole dried sage leaves, etc. and crush, grind, chop or powder them just before I need them.
A coffee grinder works well, but don’t grind coffee in it - the odor and taste of coffee will overwhelm your spices. Keep a dedicated coffee grinder for herbs and spices. A mortar and pestle, of course, is the old fashioned way of grinding herbs, and one I quite like if I have the time. A mortar and pestle smashes the cell walls and releases more essential oils, making your spices even more fragrant and flavorful than a coffee grinder - which essentially chops with a sharp blade.
If you’re used to using the stale spices from the grocery store, some of your recipes might need a little adjusting when you start using the good stuff.
If you plan on doing this in any sort of a larger scale, I periodically see beautiful old herb racks with a number of trays in antique stores. You might have to look around for one but they’re really quite attractive . . . and, for you, practical!
re: adjusting heat of spices with chile seeds
The most recent Cook’s Illustrated magazine did some experimenting with peppers, and found that the lion’s share of the capsicum (the spicy chemical in peppers–I think that’s the spelling) resides in the pith surrounding the seeds, not in the seeds themselves. So that might be the best means of adjustment.
Daniel
I do dried chilis but this will work with any fresh herb/spice.
Put a handful in a new Chux Super Wipe (a porous cloth-like kitchen/bathroom cleaner I’m sure you have something similar) and tie loosely.
Hang on the clothesline during the day while the sun is out.
If the weather is cold transfer to the radiator/in front of the fire/heater at night.
In bad weather put in the sun in the window.
Every day or two grind the whole package in your hand. When totally dry you will feel it - it will crush to chunks/powder. Store in jars.
Oh, those sound wonderful. Much prettier than the window screening I staplegun to 1"X1"s, and stack in my pantry, I’m sure!
OK, my wife just prepared enough dried garlic to season every dish in China. We live in Riyadh where it is extremely dry so you may have to modify this.
She peeled and thinly sliced about a kilo of garlic. We put the thousands of tiny slices on a large, flat basket and set them in the sun. It took 3 days before the garlic was dry enough. It should snap when you bend it rather than fold.
She put the dried slices in a ziploc bag and we either use them whole or powder them when we need them.
Do not let the garlic set outside overnight! Bring the tray in the house and put it out the next morning! The dew will undo the process and your garlic will rot.
One thing we have noticed, If you are using the home-dried garlic be careful how much you use. The dried is MUCH stronger than the fresh.
My wife also makes dried chilies by putting them in a dry skillet and heating them over a charcoal fire. We use charcoal because YOU MUST DO THIS OUTDOORS!
The chilies give off an oil that is approximately like tear-gas and it will drive you outside with mucho coughing and wheezing. I think this could be dangerous if you have asthma or other breathing prtoblems and if you don’t it is still damned uncomfortable.
We’ve also done basil and rosemary, it is about like the garlic.
Regards
Testy
chefIL11, just to check, did you want to make powdered cayenne or chili powder? They’re not the same stuff…
CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION I dried out a bunch of cayenne peppers and decided to produce my own powder using the blender. The fine dust permeated the room…and my eyes…and my nostrils…and my throat. It was an awful experience, and quite painful. It took an hour to air out the room.
If you’re crushing your own cayenne peppers, also make sure to thoroughly wash your hands before rubbing your eyes (I made this mistake once) or going to the bathroom (my brother made that mistake once).
I grind whole spices like nutmeg as needed rather than in advance. Ethnic supermarkets are a great place to get whole spices; I got whole nutmeg, cardamom, star anise, and cinnamon sticks at an Indian grocery store on the cheap. They last pretty much indefinitely. I have a small Microplane hand grinder I like very much. Be careful, though, as the freshly ground stuff is much more intense and it’s going to overpower your recipe if you use it in the same ratio as pre-ground.
powdered cayenne!
I hear you on the blender thing. We use a large morter and pestle for this. My wife has one made of stone that works very well for grinding dangerous spices such as Thai chillies.
Testy
Thanks for asking that question. As an OBTW, what is in chili powder? I can’t identify the spices in it.
Regards
Testy
Chili powder starts with cayenne pepper, but adds other yummy stuff. There’s probably as many chili powder recipes as there are cooks who make their own. Play around with porportions 'till you get something you like. I use roughly 2 parts oregano to 1 part each of cumin, garlic powder, cayenne powder and onion powder. Then add an equal amount (so 6 parts) of a good quality paprika.
I must also add a big word of caution on this one! I’ve been in his brother’s shoes, and let me tell you that it is not fun.
The BIGGER caution I MUST give to all the dopers is NEVER EVER EVER TOUCH YOUR WIFE 
AFTER HANDLING ANY HOT PEPPER. I did… once… :eek: she was NOT happy :mad: :mad: !!!
I now wear gloves whenever handling them, and wash my hands thoughroughly, and still don’t touch anything “sensitive” for the rest of the night.
However, I have learned to make my own hot sauces, and my crushed pepper flakes are great for pizza! Hot as hell though.
As for my method, I put my peppers in a basket, and just “toss” them every morning and evening. Takes about a week to dry, and sometimes I get some problem peppers. You need to have the right kinds of peppers to dry this way, thin walled peppers like cayanne and thai type peppers. Anything “fleshy” like a jalapeno doesn’t dry this way for me, though if I lived in a very arid place, this method might work. I’d need a dehydrator.
-Butler
I was watching a cooking show once and this lady was making something toxically hot in a cuisinart. She added a boatload of peppers to the feed tube and fired it up, then resumed her instructions. She coughed once or twice and moved down the table to get farther from the machine. She kept coughing. She moved farther. People off-camera started coughing and wheezing. The camera started to wobble.
She nuked the entire set.
I grow my own green herbs - tarragon, basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano, etc. and I’ve found that the best way to preserve them is to let them dry naturally. I just lay them out on my kitchen table on paper towels and turn them once a day - DON"T dry in the sun or the flavor will be reduced. Then I store the leaves whole in little plastic containers in the refrigerator. The flavor is Fantastic! I’m still using some basil and tarragon I dried two years ago and there’s no reduction in flavor. Letting them dry slowly and naturally, keeping the leaves whole and refrigeration are the secrets. I highly recommend this method for any green herb.
Shortly after the blender incident, we switched to the mortar & pestle approach. I just got my wife a very nice new one for Christmas, in fact.
:eek: Oh. My. God.
You’ve NO idea… I paid. oh yes, I’ve paid… everytime I pull out a pepper to do anything, she reminds me… I continue to pay for that. :wally