How to Make Sun-Dried Tomatoes (The Authentic Way!)

[Music] we have had such a bumper crop of tomatoes this year we've had more Tomatoes come on in our garden actually than ever before so we are elbows deep in preserving them right now because we just can't eat all of them fresh and while I really love canning tomatoes and we actually plant a lot of paste tomatoes specifically because they're great for canning they're really meaty and they make for you know really good sauce and salsa and diced tomatoes and all those good things we also grew a number of cherry tomato plants this year and while I absolutely love fresh cherry tomatoes we have way too many to be able to eat fresh and we've already given a whole bunch of way too so I've taken to preserving them and the best way that I found how to do this is actually by Sun drying them so today I'm going to show you how I do that [Music] yes so today I'm going to show you a really easy way to preserve Tomatoes and actually we're gonna be preserving cherry tomatoes today and so tomatoes of course lend themselves to lots of different styles of preserving canning is probably the most popular and to be honest we throw all of our paste tomatoes in the freezer because they're actually easier to process but they've gone into the freezer then you pull them out and you can run them under hot water and the skins slip off and then you can process the flesh and turn them into sauces and salsas and all sorts of good things but we've got a whole bunch of cherry tomatoes as well and they of course are not as meaty they're a little bit seedy or they're smaller so we don't bother with canning them but we've got too many to eat fresh so what I found is the best way to preserve them is actually by drying them now we do have a dehydrator but I've tried them in the dehydrator before and they're good they're okay but I've actually tried Sun drying them so literally out in the Sun and laid out in the Sun and I find that the flavor is just a little bit better I don't know what it is about it but it literally to me a piece like it's been infused with the Sun and so I prefer to Sun dry my tomatoes the traditional way which is literally in the Sun so of course you can use a dehydrator if you have one you could use your oven on a super low setting but if you are getting a lot of sunny weather and you've got a whole bunch of Tomatoes coming on whether they're cherry tomatoes or they're a larger variety you can actually Sun dry them in the traditional way as well and it's super super easy to do so I want to show you how we do that okay so first of all I'm going to prepare my tomatoes so I've got to cut them up so I usually with the cherry tomatoes I cut them into both thirds so you want to go Oh probably about a quarter inch thickness so of course if you've got larger Tomatoes you'll probably cut them into more pieces than thirds but that's about the thickness that I want my Tomatoes to eat son dry them and so you don't want them too too in other otherwise they can get almost like a little bit too crispy a little bit too too thin but if they're too thick then they won't dry out as well so you kind of want that sweet spot where they're still gonna be kind of chewy and like the sun-dried tomatoes you buy at the store so I thought a tray from my dehydrator so I could screen now you could just use any type of screen really you just make sure that it's clean first if you're using like a window screen or something like that but I've got my dehydrator trays so you want to have a screen or something that's just going to allow air to pass through from the bottom and the top so that they don't go moldy or anything like that so just something with really good airflow so I'm using my dehydrator strings I'll lay them up like this I'm just going to prepare all my tomatoes and lay them out [Music] okay I've got my tray full of tomatoes now I should have mentioned that before you prepare your Tomatoes you should wash them I didn't I'm not a big stickler for that especially when we're drawing them more so when we're canning and things like that you want to make sure that everything is really sanitary but a little dirt can't hurt yeah especially when you're dehydrating them so I didn't bother to wash these but just disclaimer you should so make sure that they're nice and clean before you start and then I've got them now all laid out on my tray no I did mention to put them on the screeners and it's gonna get really good airflow if you do not have a screen you honestly can't use a screen for whatever reason my next best suggestion would be to use a baking tray lined with some parchment paper but I would check on them pretty regularly every you know three four hours the most and just to make sure that that underside isn't getting moldy and that they're drying evenly because having that airflow from both sides is what's really going to allow them to dry evenly and and yeah make sure that you don't have any issues with mold like that so I've got mine all laid out on my tray now I'm going to pop them outside of the Sun I'm going to bring a little bit of salt with me I use pink Himalayan salt but you can use sea salt as well so we're gonna just head outside and go place them out in the Sun [Music] it's gonna kind of dust them with a little bit of salt now you don't even need to use salt but I find that adding the salt gives them a really nice flavor when they're dried don't overdo it because you don't want it to be too too salty I kind of just dust it over and make sure that there's a lot of assault on all of them okay and that's pretty much it you're really just gonna leave them out now I usually leave mine out for a couple days so what I do is I have them on the Sun for the day I bring them in in the evening and then I put them back out in the morning and this whole process usually takes about two maybe sometimes up to three days now if you're having a major issue with bugs and flies getting at them you can put a little bit of cheesecloth over top I've done that before or you can put another screen as long as the screen is not resting directly on them you need to prop it up around the side but I for myself I don't really eat my you don't have too much of a problem with bugs or anything so I just leave them out just like this now just to give you an idea these are some tomatoes that I've had out drying for the pad for yesterday so they were out all day yesterday and then I'm gonna leave them till the end of the day and as you can see they're getting there they're drying out pretty well they're not quite a hundred percent dry yet they can use till the end of the day but they're coming along really nicely so that's kind of what they look like after a couple days out in the Sun and then if you want to come back inside I will show you what they look like when they're completely dried okay so this is a jar of sun-dried tomatoes that I made a weak seal so this is what they look like when it completely dried so they're completely dried out so they're safe to store in a jar and what I do is I actually put one of these air absorber pots and so I save these when they come with various products shoes things like that I save these so that I can put them in with my dehydrated food just as an extra precaution airy measure just to make sure that we don't have any problems with mold or anything but if they're truly dehydrated which they are you shouldn't have a problem now you can put your sun-dried tomatoes in oil if you like just like you would buy at the store but I would recommend that if you do that you keep them in the fridge because there is still a risk of that oil and rancid there is a small risk of botulism even though your tomatoes are dried out so I would it's just not worth the risk for me so we are going to do a jar of them in oil with some herbs and things like that we're gonna keep that one in the fridge for preserving and making it shelf stable I would recommend just leaving them dried and putting them in a jar like this and from there you can use these in any recipe that calls for sun-dried tomatoes we like to put on top pizza and pasta things like that and yeah and there you go sun-dried tomatoes super easy it doesn't are any special equipment just the Sun so if you like this video make sure to hit like and subscribe below for more updates from the house and homestead [Music] you

Channel: The House & Homestead

Views: 11,019

Rating: 4.811594 out of 5

Keywords: sun dried tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes

Id: T27ND_ssfXg

Length: 9min 44sec (584 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 30 2019