food dryers

[mandylew]

http://www.tchibo.co.uk/is-bin/INTERSHO ... KU=0001774

dont know if anyone is interested in this, think I will get one to try, seems a good price

mandy

plus if you add the code 302270 in at checkout you get £5.00 off if its your first order
looks like they sold out pretty fast, got mine just in time

[sandersj89]

I managed to get one as well, thanks. It arrived yesterday and it seems ideal.

I dry loads of tomatoes in a low oven each year but this looks a better tool for the job.

What else will you be using yours for?

Jerry

[mandylew]

mine arrived yesterday too, mostly tomatoes i think although I might try banana and apple slices, I expect i will get more adventurous once i get going with it, I'm really pleased theres loads of room in it. I was a bit confused by the instructions in the booklet for beans as it seems to say to cook them first?

mandy

[pigletwillie]

Hi Jerry,

how do you dry your tomatoes via the oven and then how do you store them, do they keep for long?

I have just installed a polytunnel with the intention of growing loads of Roma and San Marzano for passata, and would love to divert some of these to drying if possible.

[Chantal]

Hi Piglet

I'm not going to try and answer your question on "how" to dry tomatoes in the oven, I'll leave that to Jerry. What I would say is I tried it a few years ago and having had my oven on for hours and hours and hours the result wasn't really worth the effort. If you're doing a load of tomatoes I would think an investment in a food drier would be a good thing and soon pay for itself.

Chantal

[sandersj89]

We have oven dried toms for a few years now, 5 or 6? But I hav wanted a dryer for some tims as it does take a while.

What we do is half or quarter the toms, we dry everything from cherry to plum to large toms.

These then go on a rack in a baking try with a sprinkling of maldon sea salt and some mixed herbs.

Into a low oven, 70 to 100 degrees with the door just ajar. Afetr about 2 hours check and remove the toms just as they start to take on some colour.

These go into sterile kilner jars and covered with olive oil. Store in a cool dark place and they will last for 6 to 8 months. We are still using last years at the moment.

Mum does much the same but has a 4 oven aga and the bottom left oven is ideal for the job.

The idea of the drier is to do more at a time and to save the oven bill.

Jerry

[sandersj89]

Forgot to say, I grow San Marzona and it dries very well indeed.

Jerry

[pigletwillie]

Thanks Jerry

[Primrose]

Last year I tried doing some oven dried tomatoes but wasn't exactly sure how far they had to be dried, i.e. whether they should have a little moisture left in them or whether they should be as dry as leather. I dried them for 3 or 4 hours and then covered them in a sterlisied jar with olive oil. However, after a couple of months mould started appearing on the top of the oil. What did I do wrong?

Considering the amount of tomatoes I cut up and dried the end result seemed rather unrewarding, so far this summer I've turned our surplus toms into tomato purree with onion & basil and freeze it, which seems to be a more reliable and versatile way of preserving them. However, would like to try once more to get the oven dried recipe right so any advice would be welcome.

[sandersj89]

If you dont cover the toms with oil to keep the air of them you can get a bit of mould.

I watch our jars and top up the oil if required.

Jerry