Hot peppers, a staple in almost every vegetable garden, are incredibly versatile. From freezing to roasting, blending with a sauce, pickling, canning, or drying, there are countless ways to transform these fiery capsicums into culinary delights. At the Veggie Bed, we found ourselves with an abundance of cowhorn peppers (Capsicum annuum, Plant variety – Cowhorn Pepper), and we were inspired to dry them.
The cowhorn is often called a cayenne-like pepper or a variety of cayenne. The cayenne, too, is sometimes called cowhorn, sharing a comparable tapering shape and coloring (maturing from green to a bold red). Still, they are related only as much as they come from the same family of chilies, annuum.
There are many ways to prepare and preserve them. One of the easiest and fastest ways to dry the hot peppers for future use is to string dry them. You can quickly string up your peppers in only a few minutes and then leave them to dry in a sunny window. You want to save the peppers you pick from your harvest, so drying chili peppers is a terrific way to store them long-term.
Using a needle and fishing line, we strung the peppers together and hung them in a window with direct sunlight. After several weeks, they started to dry. Upon tasting some ground pepper made from these dried demons, my mouth felt like I had eaten a lump of hot coal. Sweat broke out on my forehead, my eyes teared up, and my nose started running—leaving me dashing for a glass of milk!
Image: AI-Generated
Prompt/edited: Tom Myrick
Written by: Tom Myrick
About the Writer/Photographer: Tom Myrick
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