(NOT SUN) Dried Tomatoes

[Music] hey you guys it's Carolyn from home studying family and today I am going to show you exactly how I love dehydrating my Tomatoes herbed tomatoes all ready to use either right on pizzas right in pastas or as a sauce I'm going to show you how to do that right now I want to put up this smaller amount of Tomatoes this is not enough for me to start canning them it's not really enough for me to bother with even fermenting them for the scale I like to do them but it is definitely enough for me to go ahead and dehydrate my herbs tomato slices so this is so easy these tomatoes have already been washed and I'm just gonna go ahead and core them now these are definitely homegrown Tomatoes so they do have a few less than perfect spots on them so we're just gonna take out their top core there's any part that doesn't look great I'm just gonna go ahead and cut that out right now and you know I don't even know if these things are available anymore but I love this tool Josh and I got this when we were cleaning out an estate years ago we were helping somebody clean out an old house and I just love this thing I use it all the time for this it just cuts your tomatoes into all sorts of even slices just like that I'll look and see if I can find something similar for you guys and drop a link in the video if I can find it and I'm just gonna drop these right into glass bowl now you can see with a tool like that it works up really quickly if you have a really sharp mandolin slicer you can use that and of course you can use a knife okay I think that's probably enough to show you guys there so now I'm just gonna take whatever your favorite Italian mixture is now if you wanted you could do a Mexican version of the you could do all different flavors with your Tomatoes whatever you prefer I have my Italian seasoning Glen that I use it's got garlic powder and savory oregano marjoram all sorts of really good stuff in here and I'm just gonna go ahead and give this a liberal sprinkling and yes it's a sprinkling I have no idea how much I put on there just so you guys know I know you're gonna ask me for the amounts it kind of depends and often you do it by taste it's a great way to go I'm also gonna grab some salt and just sprinkle some salt on there today I'm using Redmon's real salt you could use a Himalayan salt you can use whatever salts you have on hand that you usually cook with and I'm just gonna sprinkle that on there too and then I am lightly going to toss these now I don't want to bruise them I don't want to beat them up I just want to spread out the seasonings a little bit and I will do these big bowls at a time and fill up a whole dehydrator full because these things are so amazing and they just sit on your shelf unlike canned foods or even fermented foods they take up very little space when they're done so if you live in a place where you don't have very much storage space this would be ideal for you okay now I have my dehydrator trays if you don't have a dehydrator you could if you live in a dry climate you could do these right out in a shady part of your yard if it's warm and dry you would want to cover them with a gauze like a cheesecloth or something to make sure that insects don't have access to them and generally you need to bring them in every evening so the damp evening air does not you know damage them or make them moist again you could also do these in a very very low oven and by low I mean just your pilot light on and your door cracked open or maybe just your oven light on and your door cracked open you're really looking to be you know some we're below definitely below 150 degrees okay so I'm just gonna arrange these out and I'm going to set them into my dehydrator now these are gonna take quite a few hours to do they are sliced but you know tomatoes are very damp they have a lot of moisture you know we're looking to get them to the crispy stage remember when you're checking if you're dehydrated foods are dry enough you need to remove them from the dehydrator or from the oven or from the heat of the yard and let them come to a normal low room temperature before you test and the reason is food is often a lot more pliable when it's warmer so you need to let it come down in temperature a little bit so you know how crispy or non crispy it actually it is you're looking for it to be pretty crispy in this case we want it all the way dry because you want something that's gonna really really last you through the winter okay let's go look at some that I already have done okay now these tomatoes are already dehydrated they have cooled all the way down to a cool room temperature so you can see that they are definitely crispy can you through them pop when I bend them they definitely pop no if you wanted you could do them a little less than this and keep them closer to leathery however I find that it's a lot harder to get them to leathery consistently without having too much moisture to cause them to hold so let's talk about how we would use these guys well right now they are delicious as a snack just the way they are you'd be amazed at the flavor in these guys they are so good and they will be in six months when you bite into them after they've been in storage for winter but you can also use these directly on to things like pizzas or into pastas a lot of times I'll take them and I'll just kind of crumple them up by hand and sprinkle them right on to a pizza that we're making for pizza night in our house another really good way to use these though is what they use to do before you can very much is you can put these in a bowl pour a little bit of hot water over them just to cover and let them sit covered for about 15 minutes that's gonna rehydrate them now rehydrating them is kind of a deceptive term because it is not going to turn them back into these beautiful fresh tomatoes by any means but they are gonna get softer and plumper at that point you can choose to either mash them up put them in a blender put them in a food processor and create a delicious tomato sauce now the great thing about it is because you've already removed all of the moisture at this point as long as you don't use too much moisture to rehydrate them you're gonna have a nice thick chunky sauce right away guys enjoy oh let's talk about how to store them real fast I like to keep them in a large jar I can just put the lid on keep them airtight it is best especially if you live in a humid 8 fire environment that you do put them in slightly warm so yes I know I told you just to cool them down so you know if they're ready if you determine they're ready I'll pop them back in the dehydrator turn it back on just for a few minutes to heat them up get them right into here and then lock them down and that will keep them from absorbing moisture while you're getting them in there letting them cool so that you can be sure they stay nice and dry remember moisture is the enemy of dehydrated food and if you get moisture in this jar while it's on that shelf it will mold and will ruin your entire batch and you definitely don't want that I know that so go ahead and make sure you keep them very dry and of course with all food storage it is best to have it out of direct sunlight the darker the better take care of you guys goodbye [Music] you

Channel: Homesteading Family

Views: 45,471

Keywords: Homesteading, Self-Sufficiency, Sustainable, Living, Permaculture, Homesteading Family, Food Preservation, sun dried tomtoes, dried tomtoes, off grid preservation, off grid food preservation, dehydrated tomtoes, too many tomtoes, preserving tomatoes for winter, preserving tomtoes, sun dried, drying tomatoes at home, electricity-free preservation, canning tomatoes, tomatoes in jars, how to store tomatoes, what to do with tomatoes, preservation, food preservation

Id: 9Ip8GtTX3fc

Length: 8min 39sec (519 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 09 2019