I had almost talked myself out of making any oven-dried tomatoes this year, but the tomatoes keep coming. We already have 12 pints of tomato sauce in the freezer, and I made more yesterday.
Blame (or thank) the great weather we're having for the bumper crop of tomates. The mornings are cool and slightly damp, with gray skies and fog. Before noon, the sun breaks through and temperatures rise to the mid-20s C, mid-70s F. The sun feels hot.
To dry tomatoes in the oven, I just cut them in half or into wedges and arrange them on oven trays lined with silicone baking pads or parchment paper. Yesterday I had three pans full and I put them into the oven at 85ºC (185ºF). It's a convection oven so the heat is evenly distributed and the air movement helps take the moisture out of the tomato pieces.
The important thing, I think, about drying tomatoes is to keep the oven temperature below the boiling point. You want the tomatoes to dry but not cook, so you don't want the liquid in them to boil.
I put the tomatoes in around 10 a.m. and finally turned the oven off at about 8 p.m. I left the tomatoes in the oven overnight to continue drying in a warm place. It seems to have worked. Now I'll put them in jars and reheat the jars to close to 100ºC (210ºF) before putting the lids on. That should seal them and protect the tomatoes from mold and mildew.
Oven-dried tomatoes are good added to salads, sauces, soups, and pasta dishes all winter long. The dried tomatoes take up minimal storage space. I suppose another way to store them would be to put them in plastic bags or containers and put them in the freezer.
Our preserving book says to store them in jars under oil. It's messy to use, but the tomato-flavoured oil makes good salad dressing. We also stored them dry in mini-Ziploc bags from a crafts shop - no mould! P.
ReplyDeleteThey look delicious!
ReplyDeleteSadly our tomatoes have not done very well this year, even in the greenhouse. A cool start delayed them and now there are green tomatoes that are unlikely to ripen as the number of warm sunny days is dwindling fast.
Jean, you could try wrapping the green tomatoes in newspaper, store them in a cool, dry, dark place, and wait to see if they ripen. I've done that and have had some success.
ReplyDeleteKen
ReplyDeleteThat's what I am doing . Nice tomatoes that don't have enough sun - so they went into the basement. Some pinkish colour is showing and I am hopeful.
You can always make green tomato jam; it's delicious.
ReplyDeleteI've also made green tomato ketchup.
ReplyDeleteYes, my mother would take the whole branches of green tomatoes and put them on newspaper in our little shed on the side with the window, so any southern winter sun would hit them. They would turn red - even in Northwestern U.S.A. where there isn't always a lot of winter sun. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteMary, interesting about the sun. I've put my green tomatoes in a closed cardboard box, in a dark room. Some ripen, some rot. I also liked your idea about making apple sauce without sugar. I see that in my future.
ReplyDeleteI think dried tomatoes also make a good snack as-is.
ReplyDeleteFollowing on from Chrissoup's comment...
ReplyDeleteespecially the little cherry ones!!