[CH] Caribe and the art of grinding

Steve DeLassus (SteveD@stockell.com)
Mon, 13 Jul 1998 13:01:20 -0500

I bought a dehydrator over the weekend and dried about 11 pods.  Took
about 8.5 hours, and they seem to have a better consistency than
oven-dried pods.  Now I'm ready to grind them into powder, so I ask all
you grinding experts out there: what all do you grind?  Jane Butel says
(in her Chili Madness book) that you should to remove the seeds and
membranes before grinding.  Two things come to mind: do the seeds alter
the taste of the powder, and won't you be losing a lot of the heat by
removing the membrane?  I did a test run by grinding some full (seeds
and all, minus stems, of course) oven-dried cayenne with a mortar and
pestle, and the results were less than satisfactory, in both texture and
taste.  Sounds like I need to invest a few bucks in another coffee/spice
grinder...

Also, does "chile caribe" mean different things to different people?
I've seen one source describe it almost as a paste of dried chiles and
-- I forget which -- either water or oil, blended.  Jane Butel (in the
same book) says you make chile caribe by tearing dried chiles into 1/4"
pieces, resulting in something that almost resembles pepper flakes.  Not
a big deal, just noticing some disparity as to its physical state.

Steve