Pepper Extract

A friend has a garden, and at the end of the season he had a lot of hot peppers that he brought in and gave out to people at work.  

I took them home, and we dried them for a couple of months.  Then we crushed them and bought some Everclear (95% ethanol).  (Everclear was a little bit difficult to find, but we eventually found it at a somewhat sketchy liquor store.  Our local Wegman's did not deign to carry the stuff.)  We added the peppers to a mayonnaise jar and poured in Everclear to cover the peppers.  The alcohol should extract the capsaicin (and other chili oils).  We can then filter off the peppers.  The liquid has already taken on a red-green color (similar to when the peppers were fresh).  I am not sure what kind of peppers they are.  My friend said only they were "Chinese" hot peppers.

We will then let the ethanol evaporate off, and this should leave concentrated pepper extract.  We can use this to make our own spicy sauces.