Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Eating and Drinking => Cooking, Storing and Preserving => Topic started by: surbie100 on September 16, 2015, 09:07
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Do you do them till they are crispy or semi-dried? And if it's the latter, how do you store them?
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They don't really go crispy in my experience unless you are doing very small fine slices. More leathery in texture, but if you tear one open and can't see or feel any dampness, they are ready to store in jars.
Sometimes they are a little tacky with dried sugars. As long as they are 'dry tacky' not 'wet sticky' they are done. If that makes any sense :wacko: :lol:
You may find they are so nice straight out of the jar, storage is not really an issue ;)
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I semi dry, coat in oil and freeze. The oil doesn't freeze hard so you can remove what you want.
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Thanks both - I'll try each method. Do you have to cover them in oil in the container, or just coat? :D I have 2 gravel trays of tomatoes to deal with, and even more hanging in the greenhouse.
We're just not eating them all quick enough, and while I like making sauce it gets a bit boring.
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I don't have a dehydrator, so I just chop them up a bit and freeze in 1lb bags ready for soups and sauces, but I want to try canning a few this year see how they turn out. Never done it before, but I do sometimes worry about losing everything if the freezers go down like my big one did a few years back! :(
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This Pam Corbin recipe is great for bottling (canning) :)
https://sites.google.com/site/auburnmeadowfarmrecipearchive/roasted-tomato-passata-ala-pam-corbin
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Surbie, I use a good slick, enough to stop them sticking together
Grannie Annie, I do masses of whole bottled toms as I prefer to make sauces as I need them, just doing a dozen or so ready sauces for when I do beans and such. I bottle multi coloured cherry toms as they are, san marzano for sauce, another plum for chunky toms. The latter two I peel. For all I just pack into sterile jars with a sprinkle of salt and sugar between each layer, put a lid on and waterbath for 40 minutes. I have them there for easy suppers, tomato sauces, soups and stews. They are so much better than bought tins.
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In Italy and Greece sun-dried tomatoes are really, really dry (and salty) like crisps :)
After a very good sprinkling with salt, as a preservative, I used to dry mine outside, on a board (under muslin to keep the flies off) for 5 or 6 days, bringing them in at night if the nights were cooling.
Obviously less drying if you want sun-blush tomatoes, which are stored in olive oil.
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I dry some until they are very dry and leathery.
Others I dry to the sunblush stage and then bottle in oil and vinegar; sometimes plain and some times with fennel seeds and basil.
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I semi dry, coat in oil and freeze. The oil doesn't freeze hard so you can remove what you want.
That is a brilliant idea Tosca; will try that one.
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Phyllis Hobson suggests skinning (60s in boiling water then cold quench) and coring them, slicing to 3mm slices and drying at 50C until hard and crisp (18h).
When I tried this in an Excalibur drier, I found they *really* stuck to the tray meshes.
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Try lining the trays with baking parchment or magic non stick liner before you put the tomatoes on the trays.
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Try lining the trays with baking parchment or magic non stick liner before you put the tomatoes on the trays.
Just a word of caution...I had a one of the round dehydrators and I lined the trays with baking parchment and the trays warped and cracked. I don't know for sure that the lining and therefore poorer circulation of heat was the cause, but I wouldn't risk it again. I couldn't get replacement trays either because the manufacturer said it was my fault.
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They are very good at the 'a bit leathery' stage. Yum.
Have banned OH from the kitchen.
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Try lining the trays with baking parchment or magic non stick liner before you put the tomatoes on the trays.
Just a word of caution...I had a one of the round dehydrators and I lined the trays with baking parchment and the trays warped and cracked. I don't know for sure that the lining and therefore poorer circulation of heat was the cause, but I wouldn't risk it again. I couldn't get replacement trays either because the manufacturer said it was my fault.
I have the large Excalibur that pulls the air through the back of the machine, so haven't found it a problem but I can see it might be in the smaller round stacking models.
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I used muslin for raspberries but also don't use high temperatures, preferring to leave them in longer.
Over here it is common to use the car to dehydrate, keeps the flies off and is quick! But then we do have a lot of sun. :lol:
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They are very good at the 'a bit leathery' stage. Yum.
Have banned OH from the kitchen.
I did warn you :lol:
Try sprinkling the slices with an italian herb mix before you dry them. You will have to hide these ;)
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They have oregano and one blob of oil on each (took ages!). I haven't let him try those. Hopefully they are dry enough.
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Try sprinkling the slices with an italian herb mix before you dry them. You will have to hide these ;)
A sprinkle of garlic salt is very moreish too. :nowink: