Drying Foods

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All right, I need help. My name is Cindy and I don't know how to dry tomatoes in the food dehydrator. (shame, hanging my head)

I have a real neat one, an electric one with 8 trays, white that stack on top of each other. I have to plug it in on the porch as it heats up the kitchen too bad, and when you do onions it stinks.

Thin sliced tomatoes? I have tons of jars to put them in, but worry about them rotting. We don't have A/C and I don't know for sure if my deep pantry stays under 70 degrees. Is that a problem? I haven't kept tomaotes in jars like that before but I would love to learn to be a good dryer of foods. I have the book, but you know how that is. It never works like the book says.

I figured out the wattage, and it only costs 30 cents to run it 15 hours, one big batch, so that's not bad. Plus they are my own organic tomatoes. I have green bell peppers too. They loose their good flavor in the freezer I think. I would just love to have hundreds of jars of dried foods that keep a long time. Help me, all of you experts out there. I can get a batch going today.

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001

Answers

Slice them 1\8 to 1\4 in thick and lay them on saran wrap strips on the trays. Pictur your tray as a clock face. Tomato slices on plastic wrap over 1,2,3,4,5 and 7,8,9,10,11. Area between 11 and 1, 7 and 5 and center hole open for ventilation. Stack trays in high unlock position , alternating "clock" positions of trays so that the eight stack 12, 9, 12, 9 ... to allow widest air circulation. Dry 3 to 4 hours or until dry enough to peel the semi dry slice from the plastic wrap ( this keeps the slices from fusing to the plastic tray). Turn the slice over directly in contact with the tray and put back on the dryer for a couple more hours until dry and leathery but not scorched (The lower trays will burn the easiest). I have dried over 400 beefsteaks this season like this and only scorched 2 loads due to inattentavness. If you can get a convection dryer, they work best for the finishing ( $40 at www.ronco.com) but the forced air only takes close attention.

I keep mine in suction sealed plastic bags stored in a black plastic bucket and am still using ones from the 1999 season. You can also pick green ones at the end of the season and wrap each in newspaper and store them in a cardboard box and store in a 65 to 70 degree dark closet and they will ripen over a couple months giving you "fresh " tomatoes for a big part of the winter.

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001


I dryed a lot of tomatoes each year and love them. We took a big bunch to haiti and used them there and it sure wasn't cool there. I rotate my trays every couple hours so the bottom ones end up on the top and thus avoid scorching. The peppers are also wonderful, I cut in rather small pieces (the size I like to cook with when fresh). For really wonderful fresh "dryed" flavor you can also keep them in the freezer. They take up very little room and I usually do that with my tomatoes, peppers and strawberries.

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001

I've been searching for vacume sealers too to help aid in saving of dried foods. Have any of you ever tried the Pump N Seal? It does jars and is only 20 bucks. ?? The bag sealers start about 50 dollars, but I think you have to buy the jar attachment that goes with. I don't have any saran wrap. I'll have to think of something.

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001

You can use saran wrap, sandwich bags , even plastic dropcloth material or mulch plastic as long as you sterilize it first with bleach and washing. I buy the cheapest plasic wrap I can find (usually $1 for a 25 ft roll).

-- Anonymous, July 25, 2001

I was in Meijer last night buying a pressure cooker/canner (I bought one like yours Diane) so I decided to price dehydrators. They had two models, one was around $30 and the other was around $60. Both were the round-type with stacking trays. The only difference I could see between the two was that the more expensive model had an adjustable thermostat while the cheaper one didn't. Is it worth paying the extra money to get the thermostat? Also, I know that there are square dehydrators too, are there any advantages/disadvantages of the round versus the square ones?

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001


Cindy I store all my dehyrated foods in jars,usually old crown jars,or chips I won't use to can.The difference between dehydrators are fans or no fans,thermostatically controlled or not,I prefer the square one with the fan and a thermostat,I have scorched a lot of tomatoes cuz I forgot to rotate the trays on my round one.Yesterday on Oprah(yes I confess Once a month I DO watch T.V.)Martha,ya know the one had a recipe for sun-dried tomato sauce it looked real gooooddd!!!!

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

Sherri, I like my round one a lot because it comes apart easy and cleans very easily. I have never burned anything in mine, but I do have the one with the thermostat and I can turn it on a lower temp when I know that I am going to be unavailable to rotate the racks. The nice thing about the thermostat is that you can dry your herbs and other "tenders" without the high temps that some of the other things call for.

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

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