Re: [gardeners] Dehydrator-tomatoes
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Thu, 17 Aug 2000 19:01:55 -0500
Another good time saver with tomatoes is to bring them in from the garden wash
well, dry, then put into plastic bags for freezing. I vacuum seal mine to avoid
freezer burn. When you thaw the tomatoes the skins slip right off and a lot of
the water runs out of them when thawing too. You end up with a tasty product
ready for soups, etc. When you have a lot of tomatoes to put up a little extra
time helps.
I like stewed tomatoes Donna, only I like them chilled and as a side dish with a
little black pepper and very little salt. I don't stew them in anything except
the stuff Miz Anne eats. I burned out on stewed tomatoes when I was a kid and my
Dad grew three acres of tomatoes and we had to harvest and can about a zillion
lbs of them.
George
donna warren wrote:
>
> >Try the dried tomatoes, nothing to lose if you've got lots of them. Do be sure
> >they are completely dry before you store them though or they will rapidly mold.
> >
> >George
>
> I have been drying tomatoes for several years and keep them in the freezer
> to avoid mold. For pizza, I prefer the slices to be only partly dried so
> they can be included as a topping before baking and will not be so likely to
> scorch. If completely dry, I knead them into the dough. A couple of weeks
> ago, I was using fresh slices for topping; they tended to slide off when
> bitten leaving a damp glistening spot where the slice had been; and they
> tasted rather like stewed toms, not a favorite of mine. Hence the
> experiment with partial drying. Taste was fantastic and they stayed put,
> with a little parmesan for glue.
>
> A few years back, I planted a "spoon" variety. Clusters of tiny tomatoes
> which have a flavor way bigger than their size. And they reseed so wildly
> that it appears that you have sown them as a ground cover. So I dried some;
> works well if you have a lot of time to waste as they need to be cut so the
> moisture can escape. I lined them up in the trough of a school ruler and
> cut them with a razor. But didn't do that again.
>
> Used to have a kitchen full of steam in August, and fruit flies attacking,
> as I canned a 100 quarts. 100 quarts of anything take a lot of space. And
> it was not worth getting out the pressure canner, sterilizing the jars and
> then protecting the jars from freezing in the winter. Now, if I have a half
> dozen more than I can use fresh, it is so easy to dry them. Just wash,
> slice, and pop them in the dryer. A dishpan full of fresh ones can be
> stored in a quart freezer bag tucked into any corner of the freezer. Or if
> completely dry, as George says, you can omit the freezer. And you can do
> anything with them that you can with canned ones. Except make stewed
> tomatoes - which is a plus.
>
> Donna, Tennessee