Tomatoes dried in a sun dried style?

[taxlady]

Has anyone here dried tomatoes to use as sun-dried tomatoes are used? If so, please tell me how you did it and how you liked the results.

I am looking for information. I would like to try drying tomatoes in such a way that they can be used in recipes that call for sun dried tomatoes.

 

[Kathleen]

I used a dehydrator, Taxy....so I have nothing to help. But the results were great!

 

[medtran49]

Sun dried tomatos, where are they in market?

Where do i find these in the market? I've been wanting to try these for years. Are they in the dried fruit ilse like raisens? I think I saw some in a small jar next to the olives, but thay were like in oil. Eric, Austin Tx.

www.discusscooking.com

 

[blissful]

I dry mine in the dehydrator too. I usually slice them. If you actually leave them in the sun they need to be protected on top by a screen or something to keep bugs off.
I freeze them or put them in plastic containers in the pantry. When using them I cut them in smaller pieces with a kitchen scissors.

 

[taxlady]

Sun dried tomatos, where are they in market?

Where do i find these in the market? I've been wanting to try these for years. Are they in the dried fruit ilse like raisens? I think I saw some in a small jar next to the olives, but thay were like in oil. Eric, Austin Tx.

www.discusscooking.com

Thank you. Yeah, I figured dehydrated would be too dry. I bought a few times, years ago. They always got hard and useless before we finished them.

Did someone give you the instructions for that? I was wondering just how dry they needed to get. Leathery sounds like the stuff I've bought, until it got hard.

 

[taxlady]

I dry mine in the dehydrator too. I usually slice them. If you actually leave them in the sun they need to be protected on top by a screen or something to keep bugs off.
I freeze them or put them in plastic containers in the pantry. When using them I cut them in smaller pieces with a kitchen scissors.

Do you just dry the tomato slices, with nothing on them, in the dehydrator? What temperature? How long? Have you figured out a test to know when they are done?

 

[medtran49]

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[blissful]

@taxlady I dry them (on parchment with nothing on them) until they are crisp and completely dry for storing at room temperature.
I dry them at about 125 deg F, for many many hours sometimes a whole 24 hours depending on the thickness of the slices.

If what you are looking for is a pliable dry tomato slice, then only dry until they feel just right, I can only guess at the time, 12 hours. Then keep them frozen so they don't rot or ferment.

How to test. For complete dryness, they need to cool completely to room temperature, put them in a jar, shake them daily for a week and they should rattle hard against the jar. If they get soft then they need to go back in the dehydrator. It's called conditioning. (the moister portions of the slice give off some moisture and the harder parts suck up moisture until everything is at the same moisture level)

For a softer pliable slice, cool to room temperature, check for pliability. Once you are happy with it, keep it in the freezer.

 

[taxlady]

@taxlady I dry them (on parchment with nothing on them) until they are crisp and completely dry for storing at room temperature.
I dry them at about 125 deg F, for many many hours sometimes a whole 24 hours depending on the thickness of the slices.

If what you are looking for is a pliable dry tomato slice, then only dry until they feel just right, I can only guess at the time, 12 hours. Then keep them frozen so they don't rot or ferment.

How to test. For complete dryness, they need to cool completely to room temperature, put them in a jar, shake them daily for a week and they should rattle hard against the jar. If they get soft then they need to go back in the dehydrator. It's called conditioning. (the moister portions of the slice give off some moisture and the harder parts suck up moisture until everything is at the same moisture level)

For a softer pliable slice, cool to room temperature, check for pliability. Once you are happy with it, keep it in the freezer.

Thank you. I have instructions for crisp dried tomatoes. What I was looking for is for the pliable, leathery ones. I didn't figure it was too hard. But, if other people here already knew how to do it, I could learn from their experience. Nice to have two similar, but different methods / recipes / instructions / options.

 

[dragnlaw]

Thank you for that explanation bliss.

I purchased a large container of grape tomatoes. But I will have to dry some of them as there is no way I can finish them all off before they "head south".
I'll do them in the dehydrator, half to the crispy part and half to the pliable stage.

taxy, because they are small rather than regular size, I will squeeze out the juicy seeds. I won't be particularly diligent in the purge, just for the majority, to lessen the moisture content in order to facilitate drying.

 

[taxlady]

taxy, because they are small rather than regular size, I will squeeze out the juicy seeds. I won't be particularly diligent in the purge, just for the majority, to lessen the moisture content in order to facilitate drying.

Getting rid of the seeds before they are dried is the main reason I want to do this. I can't buy sun dried tomatoes without seeds.

 

[blissful]

Things that have a skin surrounding the soft parts, like blueberries, grapes, cranberries, and cherry tomatoes, need to be cut open or somehow exposed to the air to dry. (blanched, holes poked in them, frozen and thawed) Otherwise they take 2 or 3 times longer to dry.

For cherry tomatoes, if you cut them in half, you could dry them that way or squeeze out the seeds then, keeping them open to the air.

 

[pictonguy]

I use olive oil and sea salt and sometimes herbs as well when I oven dry which renders them more pliable and I store them in jars with more olive oil to cover and make them exclusively this time of year where I live. I prefer this method to completely drying them out and I feel they retain their flavor better and are more pliable so I can use them without reconstituting them. they are just more versatile in a restaurant setting and delivering maximum flavor. I use cherry and roma tomatoes generally. I vac pack them also for later use and they can be frozen as well.

 

[dragnlaw]

In that case taxy I would use Roma type tomatoes. Fewer seeds and gel in the first place. Easier to purge. If they are not particularly big then halving them lengthwise should be fine and give you nice thick halves. Very large ones (which I've been seeing lately) I would slice across (equator wise) and seed them that way.

Picton, bliss - what is the shelf life of the tomatoes if they are still pliable? If they are in oil is the shelf life like canned?

 

[taxlady]

In that case taxy I would use Roma type tomatoes. Fewer seeds and gel in the first place. Easier to purge. If they are not particularly big then halving them lengthwise should be fine and give you nice thick halves. Very large ones (which I've been seeing lately) I would slice across (equator wise) and seed them that way.

Picton, bliss - what is the shelf life of the tomatoes if they are still pliable? If they are in oil is the shelf life like canned?

I don't think it matters a lot, how many seeds they have. It's not going to make much difference when I'm removing them. I don't want to put constraints on which types of tomatoes I can buy for this.

 

[Kathleen]

Taxy, when I get tomatoes that are getting a bit soft, I will dry them in the oven and use them in pasta sauces. They are amazing and I believe that you will get the results that you are seeking with the same method.

1. Use small to medium tomatoes. (Yeah, you can use large ones but since you are selecting what you are drying, try to get uniform tomatoes.) I would use Roma or San Marzano tomatoes if you have a choice.
2. Wash and dry them well.
3. Slice them in half. (You can remove the seeds at this point if you want.) Place them skin-side down and cut side up on parchment on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with a bit of salt. (Kosher, sea salt, Mortons, whatever.)
4. Place in the middle of a pre-heated oven at 120 degrees Celsius.
5. Go do something else for 2.5 to 3.5 hours. Check them...are they leathery like you want? If so, pull them out and let them cool. If not, place them in for another hour or four. Sometimes, to get leathery tomatoes, it will take up to 8 hours. It really depends on the moisture in them. They should be shrunken and shriveled and leathery.
6. Let them cool. You can store them in an air-tight jar OR...plunk them into olive oil with whatever else you want to add in: Basil. Garlic. Whatever.

My paternal grandmother used to dry tomatoes in the sun. All I remember of it was she sliced them on a mandolin to about 1/4 inch slices. She always salted them and placed them on a frame that would be hung and had window-screen like mesh on it. She then covered them with another piece of mesh to keep bugs away. She then hung them from the clothesline pole. The frame had four ropes that connected to the frame and went up to a point. She could add other frames, but would place anything drying above anything that was new to drying. She would store in canning jars because it was air tight. If she did not use them within a time that I do not remember, she would place the jar in the freezer after she got one. Mind you, I never tried this. And I do not know how long it would take. I do know she would check them around noon each day after the morning dew had dissipated.

 

[taxlady]

Thanks everyone, I think I have the gist of how to do this now. Next question, I will be doing this in my toaster oven. My toaster oven has convection. It has settings for dehydrate. Other than how fast it dries, do you think using the fan will have any effect on the result?

 

[knowledge keeper]

Кто-нибудь здесь использовал сушеные помидоры, как вяленые на солнце? Если да, то расскажите, как вы это делали и как вам понравился результат.

Я ищу информацию. Я хотел бы попробовать высушить помидоры таким образом, чтобы их можно было использовать в рецептах, где требуются вяленые помидоры.

Oh, for sure! I tried using dried tomatoes instead of sun-dried ones, and it's a cool thing! Here's how I did it: first, I sliced the tomatoes thinly. Then I laid them out on a rack in the oven, seasoned them with salt and pepper, and dried them at a low temperature (around 60-70 degrees Celsius) for a few hours until they were completely dry.

 

[dragnlaw]

Yes, the fan definitely helps with the drying. Driving off or just moving around the moisture laden air is the point of it.

I suggested roma as there is more meat, less seeds and gel, as compared to say traditional beef eater type tomatoes. Less seeds and gel, the quicker and less messy your job. More return for your efforts.

 

[taxlady]

Yes, the fan definitely helps with the drying. Driving off or just moving around the moisture laden air is the point of it.

I suggested roma as there is more meat, less seeds and gel, as compared to say traditional beef eater type tomatoes. Less seeds and gel, the quicker and less messy your job. More return for your efforts.

Your take on the fan is logical. I just want to know if there are gotchas that anyone knows about. Sometimes when drying food a phenomenon called case hardening occurs. It's when the outside gets so dry that no more moisture is drawn out of the food by the dehydrator, but the inside isn't dry yet.

I think the job is equally messy, whether it's smaller meatier tomatoes or bigger ones. I take the seeds out of tomatoes all the time. I have a fair amount of practice with that now. I think the bigger tomatoes are actually less work. But, I will be buying tomatoes from Lufa Farms, so I only have a certain amount of control over what size tomatoes I get. It's not like I can choose them individually, as one does when one is in the store.