Comments on: Drying Tomatoes Without an Oven

By: Marti W

Marti W — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:20:40 +0000

Hank,
Using your outstanding information and a method borrowed from Alton Brown of the Food Network, I dried my first harvest. Living in SW Arizona the temperatures get very warm which helped with the method but isn’t necessary. In only 48 hours I had beautifully dried tomatoes with no mold issues in a small space.

Per Alton, use a 20″ square box fan, 20″ square non-fiberglass pleated AC/furnace filters, non-stick dehydrator mesh mats, and 2 bungee cords. Prepare tomatoes as you describe. Stack a filter, dryer mesh, tomatoes, dryer mesh, and filter. Repeat until you finish with a filter. Bungee to box fan and lay flat on it’s back on a suitable elevated surface like a milk crate or some cinder blocks. Set fan to medium speed and forget it for two days. Cooler areas may require high speed as it is the air passage and not the heat that dehydrates.

I’m glad I stumbled onto your site. It has a lot of information I’ll be using in the future.

By: jennifer s

jennifer s — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:37:38 +0000

I’ve been making that weird recipe from the preserving book. It’s an old recipe from Provence that require the tomatoes to ferment, dry and then get rolled into little balls and stuck in oil. THEY’RE GREAT! Tomato candy.

The odd byproduct that I’ve grown to love (and acquired taste for sure) is the fermented tomato water that released as the tomatoes ferment in the sun. It’s a sweet, bubbly (and possibly very-slightly alcoholic) elixir. Everyone in my family looks at me cross-eyed, but it’s delish.

A great recipe to try when the farmers (or you) have an abundance of ugly over-ripes. They give them to me for free—no tomato is too ripe for the recipe.

Try it if you have some over-the-edge tomatoes.

By: hank

hank — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:39:07 +0000

Wendy: Hmmm…darks and crisp, huh? Sounds like you let them dry waaay too much. My suggestion at this point is to grind them to a powder in a spice mill and use the tomatoes that way. I like to use tomato powder in pasta — turns it red!

By: wendy

wendy — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:16:17 +0000

HELP. I have been so excited about drying tomatoes from the huge harvest in my garden but I think I have overdried them all. I have done some grape tomatoes and then yesterday two pans of romas, all dried in the oven. They are dark and crisp. Please tell me I can still use them. I am going to try again, watching much more closely for doneness. Suggestions?

By: John Dicus

John Dicus — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:57:00 +0000

Nice job….
I agree about keeping foods out of the sun. I’ve been doing some low tech cookie sheet drying in the sun, one sheet over the other with a small gap top and bottom to flow air. I was able to dry sliced cactus in 48 hours.
I’ll be making a link from my blog to your site… useful information!

By: Jennifer (4bratz2luv)

Jennifer (4bratz2luv) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 05:41:24 +0000

The Tin shed was a great idea for me. I did about 4 pounds or so of Romas and it took about 7 hours! They taste fabulous. Thanks for all your help with this process.

By: How to Dry Tomatoes

How to Dry Tomatoes — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:43:32 +0000

i had been looking for an alternative method of drying tomatoes and keep them. thanks for the useful post..

By: hank

hank — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:19:37 +0000

Kerry: Yes, that means you cannot CONSISTENTLY dry tomatoes in the sun without mold. You might be able to get away with it on unusually hot days, though. As for the dehydrator, I don’t use them, so I don’t know. Sorry.

By: Kerry

Kerry — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:00:49 +0000

Another question, Tomato Raisins how long would you put in dehydrater for and how can you tell they are perfectly dry. I imagine that if they weren’t completey dry they would rot??

Thanks