Kitchen Garden Forum

We have just made a batch of oven dried tomatoes (good deal from a market stall) which we plan to store in a jar of olive oil in the fridge.
I am aware of a general botulism risk for some vegetables stored in oil in certain cases. Is anybody an expert in this and can advise me of any risks we need to avoid. How safe would they be stored for a month in a fridge at 5 degrees?

There have been some deep discussions here in spain on drying tomatoes most people do not have much success in it, the sensuous seems to be , use plum tomatoes cut in half lenght ways in spain they say to sit them on the dashboard of your car parked in sunlight if not dried after 48 hours bin them but rince in a strong soluction of water and camden tablets at the start, one or two people are singing the praises of the cheap drying things found on the likes of ebay or amazon, i froze around 70 last autumn i like them skinned them cooked in a bit of butter then poured over toast they have been better than expectations

Hi Primrose

I oven dry tomatoes every year (around 20 jars) and store them in olive oil in the cupboard. I've been doing this for 10 years and apart from a couple of jars which went mouldy for some reason, they and I have been just fine.

I may just have been lucky, but I've never had a problem and don't put them in the fridge even once opened.

Good luck.

Chantal - thanks foe this nformation. We have mad e a couple of small batches in the past month, and stored both in smallish jars in the fridge which jave been fine, because we really like them and they don't last very long! But obviously when this summer,s crop comes on stream i'd like to make too many to store in the fridge and the only batch I previously made and stored unopened in a cupboard went mouldy. Perhaps I'd been a little careless in the jar sterilising process in some way and will redouble my vigilance in future.