I had an experience this week that made an indelible mark on my psyche. I can honestly say that I never want to be hit with pepper spray. It goes a bit like this.

I had some cayenne peppers that I had picked up from a local farmers market and didn’t really know what to do with them. I did some online research and decided to make cayenne pepper powder. It’s a relatively simple process: 1) Dehydrate until they are super dry. 2) remove the seeds. 3) grind them into a powder. 4) put in an airtight container. 5) label. 6) enjoy!

The first step was easy. The peppers went into the dehydrator for around 36 hours to get them very dry and then removed the seeds, crack them open and shake out the seeds. A few won’t make too much difference, but I read that dry seeds when ground can make the finished powder bitter.

Into the grinder, they went and after pulsing for a bit I had a rough powdery flake. The grinder isn’t the best and I didn’t think I would mind a bit of flaky/powder. I got distracted so left it in the grinder for an hour.

When I came back to it I poured it into a tin and it looked and smelled pretty good. I noted that it was a bit “peppery” in the air but no big deal.

It takes quite a few peppers to make a good amount of powder/flake and I didn’t have any more cayenne peppers so I decided to use up some of the older dry peppers I had from last year and make a generic chili flake/powder.

I used a mix of jalapeno, serrano, and anji rojo peppers. The Aji’s are a little hotter than cayenne peppers – but not by much. I had quite a few of them left so de-seeded them and put them in the big food processor so I had enough working space.

My mistake was the large food processor has a vented lid. I started coughing a few pulses in not thinking it through quite clearly I kept going and then the big mistake. I opened the top to look in.

I almost died. I started to cough, snot ran from my nose and my eyes burned. I coughed so hard I felt like I was going to pass out. After the spasms passed I managed to get the flakes into a jar and covered with a lid. Clean up had to come in batches as the pepper oil/powder infused everything in the kitchen. I didn’t get any post process pics simply because my eye twitches anytime I look at the jar.

Note to self – use the blender next time and let it sit when done to settle down. Or get a gas mask. The jury is still out on how this turned out since I have no desire to use any pepper until my mucous membranes heal back up.