Dehydrating

[MuddyToes]

Interesting idea. My dehydrator came with inserts to make fruit leather. I could probably make a paste with them. Do you have a recipe, or method, Worth1?

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by MuddyToes

Interesting idea. My dehydrator came with inserts to make fruit leather. I could probably make a paste with them. Do you have a recipe, or method, Worth1?

Someone here did it in an oven I think it was nematode not for sure.

All you need is the tomato paste or sauce or what ever spread out on a flat surface and let the sun dehydrate it.
You have to keep spreading and turning a few times a day until it is super concentrated and in a ball.
My friend from Sicily's father told me how to do it with plywood with a border around it to keep it from spilling out.

Once it is down to almost nothing you can just keep it in a jar mixed with salt and olive oil on top.
I have made small wee batches it is like a thousand tomatoes in one taste.

I think estratto is Italian for extract.

[Durgan]

http://durgan.org/2016/October%20201...20Powder/HTML/ 31 October 2016 Dehydrated Broccoli Powder
Three purchased broccoli heads were made into dehydrated vegetable powder for storage. The heads were blended into slurry with water and half a cup of dried nixtamalized corn kernels, poured onto a Teflon pan and dehydrated for about 12 hours. The dried slurry was then blended into a fine powder and stored in jars or plastic containers. A few pictures of all the dried material produced to date is shown. They are re-hydrated by adding water and microwaving for about three minutes.

[Father'sDaughter]

I have a very authentic southern Italian cookbook that has instructions on how to make it in an oven. Here's the recipe and instructions from the book --

http://leitesculinaria.com/87323/rec...-pomodori.html

The only issue you might have with doing this on fruit leather trays in the dehydrator is that you won't be able to (easily) stir and re-spread it.

[MuddyToes]

Thank you, Worth1 and Father'sDaughter. I will give this a go next season.

[Durgan]

http://durgan.org/2016/November%2020...20Powder/HTML/ 2 November 2016 Soy Bean Powder
A liter of pureed soy beans were dehydrated and blended into a powder for storage at room temperature. Half a cup of nixtamalized corn was pureed with the soy to inhibit the dried slurry from sticking to the Teflon pan. Dehydration was 12 hours at 52C. The dried material is approximately six servings. Annotated pictures depict the process.

[Salsacharley]

I just used Durgan’s method to make tomato powder with the exception that I removed the skins and seeds before I put the slurry in the dehydrator. I will get a finer powder than if I left the skins and seeds, and I personally think the taste of the powder is less bitter without the seeds and skins. You can see the quantity of seeds and stems removed as they exit the Victorio strainer.

I used 25 lbs of tomatoes and got 25 cups of tomato juice. According to my high math that works out to 1 cup of juice per pound of tomatoes. I used all kinds of tomatoes, at least 50 different varieties. After seeing Durgan’s method listed above, I went out and bought 5 shallow cooking trays that are supposed to be stick resistant. They are not Teflon but hopefully will work. I also went out and got a nylon spatula. I put 3 cups of juice into 4 pans and 4 cups into the 5th pan. I had 9 cups left over that I am going to make sauce with.

I ran the Excalibur dehydrator at 135°F for 8 hours and the juice was still quite sticky.
I let the juice sit in the dehydrator overnight and ran it another 8 hours a 135°. The texture was like fruit leather. I used the nylon spatula and was able to extract the sheets of tomato leather out of each tray intact. I flipped the sheets over and gave them another 8 hours in the dehydrator at the same temperature. This time all the trays except the tray with 4 cups were nice and crispy. I had to run the tray with 4 cups another 8 hours to get it crispy.

Once I had all the sheets of tomato crispy I ran them through my little Ninja and turned them into powder. I got 13 teaspoons of powder out of each of the 3 cup trays and 16 teaspoons of powder out of the tray with 4 cups. That works out to almost 23 tablespoons of powder from 25 lbs of tomatoes. That’s a little less than 1 tablespoon per pound of tomatoes. Now I need to figure out what to do with all this tomato powder. It is VERY concentrated.

[Durgan]

http://durgan.org/2016/October%20201...0Powder./HTML/ 21 October 2016 Making Dried Tomato Powder.
Four trays of 750 ml each of tomatoes were made into a slurry, dehydrated and stored as a powder. These are the tomatoes ripening in the house. There are too many for immediate use, so this is the chosen storage method. Process is to blend into a slurry of about 750 ml with the addition of half a cup of nixtamalized corn to each blender full. The nixtamalized corn prevents the slurry from sticking to the pan when dehydrating. The dried slurry is scraped off into a plastic container to prevent the brittle pieces from flying all over. The dehydrator,Excalibur, was set at 125F for ten hours until dry. Storage is 250 ml canning jars.

[swellcat]

That’s . . . less than 1 tablespoon per pound of tomatoes. Now I need to figure out what to do with all this tomato powder. It is VERY concentrated.

That's an impressive ratio. Preserving and practical storage—reduced space—of a crop is the point, I reckon.

Have you infused spaghetti sauce with a few tablespoons? That's the first thing that occurs to me.

You could certainly flavor and color rice, noodles, and vegetables using the powder something like seasoning salt. Imagine white or black beans with red rice.


— http://www.knorr.com/product/detail/...o-with-chicken

[Salsacharley]

Thanks for the reference to the Knorr site. There are some interesting ideas to pursue there. Since I have just finished making the powder I haven't done anything with it yet. I've also got a bunch of different pepper powders and some dehydrated garlic so I will start experimenting.

[Worth1]

I always like to use a can of tomato paste in my spaghetti sauce.
More tomato flavor less BS as far as I am concerned.
Powder would be even better but it needs time to re hydrate like I do my pepper powders.

Worth

[Nan_PA_6b]

I've added tomato powder to slow-cooked roasts, and soups. I wonder if it would make a good tomato soup?

Nan