Oven drying fruit

[Primrose]

I am often lucky enough to be given surplus fruit at this time of year like plums, apples,pears, and with a full freezer would like to,try oven drying some. My previous efforts have not been very successful and I wonder if anybody uses this method of preserving and has any tips to ensure success, especially with storage, where I find that the fruit goes mouldy?

[Motherwoman]

Hi Primrose,

I tried oven drying many years ago, slice thin and dip in lemon juice to prevent discoloration but the oven must be on very low to avoid cooking them rather than drying. I had mixed results and in the end bought an electric dehydrator. I had much better results with this method, the apple rings stored well and were very tasty, the plums (stoned and halved) were absolutely great; I couldn't stop eating them.... I also dry my own herbs which retain their flavour very well.

My advice would be to invest in a dehydrator, you will find many uses for it.

MW

[Primrose]

MW. If I feel I could justify a regular use for it I might add it to my early Christmas wish list.! We are particularly fond of those very expensive herb dried tomatoes you can buy in delicatessens and wonder whether you've experimented with these and whether they were a success?

[Motherwoman]

I did try them once but even taking the seed and 'runny' bit out they took ages to dry and weren't very nice afterwards so I decided that cooking, sieving and bottling was a better way to go with toms.

I've had the dehyrator for about 10 years and, touch wood, is still going strong so it's a long term investment. Probably only in use about 10-20 times a year depending on crop levels. I shall be drying some more sage before the month's out and the walnuts will be dried so they keep till December.

MW

[PLUMPUDDING]

I bought a dehydrator last year but have hardly used it. It takes hours and hours even when fruits are sliced quite thinly. I think the thought of how much electricity it is using is putting me off. It probably doesn't use all that much really.

How long do you dry the walnuts for? I've got 10 on my young tree.

[Chantal]

I bought a dehydrator and it took forever to dry anything - up to two days for some things. What's more, "sun dried" tomatoes were too deep for the trays!

I sold it on eBay.

I now dry my tomatoes in the oven. I use Principe Borghese tomatoes (seeds from Seeds of Italy) a variety grown in Italy especially for sun drying. I cut them in half and lie them face up on mesh trays (I use my oven trays with grills with another cake rack over the top) and sprinkle them with salt (herbs too if you want). They then go into an oven for a couple of hours, around 140 degrees in my fan oven.

When they are dry enough, not totally dehydrated but intense in taste, I bottle them using sterilised jars (Seeds of Italy again, they do beautiful preserving jars) and Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

I keep them in the dark and they are still good a couple of years down the line, if I manage to leave them alone for that long. If my sister and mother find out I've made any then I'm lucky if they last the week!

[Primrose]

Chantal, that's helpful and I was I intrigued about your comment on the special drying qualities of Principe borghese tomatoes. Can you explain how they differ from some of the English varieties like Gardeners Delight, Moneymaker, etc? Are they less fleshy or jess juicy? I did sterlise my jars, covered my tomatoes with olive oil (but not Extra Virgin) and kept them in a dark cupboard but they still went mouldy so can,t figure out what went wrong. Perhaps I didn't !t dry them down enough. I,ve now purreed or otherwise processed my surplus crop for this year so will have to wait for next season before I can experiment again because even a large quantity of tomatoes reduce to quite a small amount when you start drying them .

[Chantal]

Hi Primrose, Principe Borghese are egg shaped and in size between a cherry and salad tomato. Very few seeds and recommended by SOI for drying. Also called the Eternal Tomato as you can, if you have room, yank up the whole plant, hang it upside down in a shed or garage and pick tomatoes all winter. Not tried this as no space.

[Chantal]

Hi Primrose, Principe Borghese are egg shaped and in size between a cherry and salad tomato. Very few seeds and recommended by SOI for drying. Also called the Eternal Tomato as you can, if you have room, yank up the whole plant, hang it upside down in a shed or garage and pick tomatoes all winter. Not tried this as no space.

[Primrose]

Its storage faciilities sound interesting if you,ve got the space. I have an eternal dilemma every autumn how to handle the remaining green tomatoes on my plants in the hope that they will continue to ripen somehow bit I'm intrigued how the plant continues to grow.and fruit ripen if there,s no soil or moisture around the roots?
Or do the tomatoes just continue to extract the remaining moisture in the main stem through gravity and ripen better because the skins don,t wrinkle like picked tomatoes which ripen on a window ledge?
Has anybody had the space to experiment with this ripening method with other varieties of tomato?

[FelixLeiter]

I have tried many different ways of drying tomatoes over the years. The most successful was drying them in a laboratory desiccating oven. But of course that's not something accessible to everyone. It did, though, allow complete control over the drying process and I learnt that drying tomatoes down completely — that is, to zero moisture content — spoiled them. To preserve their flavour, drying to around 5% is preferable. I preserved them in jars, layered in oil. You also need to give a tomato fruit a sporting chance of drying by removing the seeds and pith. Plum varieties are the easiest sort to process. Varieties which are selected for drying are internally more like sweet peppers, almost seedless and with empty cavities. The fruits are halved, de-seeded, and placed cut-face down to drain for drying.

I've not attempted drying other fruits. Usually, sulphur dioxide is added to prevent discolouring, and to suppress mould. Drying any fruit is always going to be a lengthy process. Increasing temperature speeds things up, but then the fruit gets cooked.

[Motherwoman]

The walnuts had 24 hours the last time I did them which I think was too long. I shall be trying about 16 hours this year. I just had to guess as I could find no advice.

Interesting about the best drying tom, I might give those a try next year. Was it a gas, electric or range type cooker? Just thinking about what sort of heat as electric will be dryer than gas.

MW

[Geoff]

My wife just dries tomatoes in a roasting tin balanced between the Aga hob lids then bottles them in olive oil.