Tomato Powder Is Forever

Well, maybe not quite.  "Diamonds Are Forever" in James Bond's world, and "A Diamond Is Forever" according to the people at DeBeers.  In our pantries, pasta is almost forever.  Unfortunately, the canned tomatoes for making spaghetti sauce to go with the pasta do not last forever.  They don't even come close.  The darn acid in the tomatoes eats through the cans.
The commercially-produced marinara sauce doesn't last that long, either.  Neither does ketchup, unfortunately.  Or barbecue sauce.

And yet, I want to be able to have all these things and more when the trucks stop rolling and the juice stops flowing.  I need to be able to make these tomato-based products from scratch.  And not only that, I need to be able to make them in smaller quantities than we normally purchase for times when we lack reliable refrigeration.

I've made tomato powder in the past, just to be sure I could really do it and that it would work as well as the commercially-prepared stuff.  But this past year was different.  Even though the tomato harvest wasn't as good as usual due to an exceptionally early freeze, I still had about 30 gallons of tomatoes.  And because I started dehydrating more and freezing less, I used the pint and half-pint jars for the dehydrated foods, as well as medicinal herbs and tinctures that I've been making and preserving more of.  We're already short on space here.  I didn't want to buy more canning jars.

The only solution was to turn all those tomatoes into tomato powder.  In the past, I simply dehydrated tomato slices or chunks and then powdered them in the blender.  But this process doesn't produce a very fine powder, at least not in my blender. A fine powder will reconstitute more quickly and thoroughly and much more smoothly.  And that's what I wanted.  An added bonus is that tomato powder takes far less space than canned sauce.

To make your own tomato powder from your garden tomatoes:

• Wash and core the tomatoes.
• Slice tomatoes about 1/4-1/2" thick.
• Place slices in a freezer bag or Tupperware and freeze.
• When you have a big batch of tomatoes ready to run through your juicer, thaw the tomatoes completely.  
• Pour off all the liquid and discard or boil it down for vegetable stock.
• Process the tomatoes in your juicer.
• Bring the resulting sauce to a boil over medium heat for two minutes.
• Cool the sauce and then spread it on dehydrator sheets, about 1/8" thick.
• Dehydrate at 115-125 degrees for about 10 hours, until completely dry.
• Process the dehydrated tomato sauce in a blender or food processor until it is a fine powder.
• If necessary, run it through a fine-mesh strainer to isolate the larger particles.  
• Let cool completely and package for long term storage in canning jars or Mylar bags.

Use your tomato powder to make tomato sauce, tomato paste, or ketchup.  It's perfect for creating your own instant soups or meals.  It can also be used to make Spanish rice or enchilada sauce.  The possibilities are endless. 

And if you don't have a garden or you happen upon a great deal at the store, you can apply this process to commercially canned sauce.  Just open the can, pour the sauce on the tray, and dehydrate as usual.

Links to related posts:
Dehydrating Tomatoes  
Tomato Sauce  
Tomato Paste
Ketchup
Tomato Soup