And then you come across today's post of "Dehydrated Tomatoes," and you become a little teary-eyed. Because you're depressed to see it's such a boring topic, or a little excited at the idea of having a tomato to put on your hamburger.
Now there is a whole lot you can do with dehydrated tomatoes, but in keeping with the theme, we're going to start with dehydrating tomatoes whose ultimate purpose in life is to be re-hydrated for putting on hamburgers.
It's important to note that there actually is a difference between dried food and dehydrated food. Dried food still has some water content in it so it is much more pliable, and it has a much shorter shelf life. On the other hand, dehydrated food has had as much water removed as possible. It is crispy and has a much longer shelf life, which is what we as prepared people want.
I started with my garden tomatoes, the ones I had to pick super early (October 15th-ish because of super early freezing temperatures--sad), and that had been ripening in the atrium. They got washed and then dipped in boiling water to remove the skins from some tomatoes. (I couldn't tell a difference in flavor between the skinned and non-skinned tomatoes, however, I must admit, I do not have super-sensitive taste buds.) I'm not entirely convinced that removing the skins is necessary, but I was wondering if the skin imparted a bitter flavor to the re-hydrated tomato, so I wanted to be able to do a side-by-side comparison.
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| handy dandy tomato slicer--nice for making tomato slices of perfectly uniform thickness, in this case, 1/4-inch thick |
I then sliced them up and put them on the dehydrator trays. Now most instructions say to dehydrate tomatoes at 125-135 degrees, and of course the number of hours is going to vary depending on the thickness of your slices and your humidity. But I don't want to cook my tomatoes at all. I want to be able to use them as fresh--hopefully--and I want them to retain their beautiful color. So I set the thermostat to 90 degrees.
And because I want as much moisture out as possible, I've let them go 18 hours now. They are crispy. They are done!
Because they are so crispy, they need to be removed from the trays carefully. And because these beautiful babies are for hamburgers, they are stacked in a pint canning jar. Naturally, there will be some broken pieces. These are set aside for other uses. More on that later.
Once the jar is full, it is vacuum-sealed (or you could use an oxygen absorber). Glass jars and vacuum sealing are the only way to keep moisture out. If you live in the desert, you might be able to forgo the vacuum sealing. Everyone else better do it for sure. Trust me on that.
Now, for the test. How long does it take to re-hydrate? Well, more than the few minutes it takes to make a hamburger. If you are putting them on your hamburger, start re-hydrating before you do anything else.
I was really, really hoping the tomato slices would re-hydrate well and regain their original thickness and texture. I checked them every half hour for about four hours. Unfortunately, they never regained their original size and there was no difference between 30 minutes and 4 hours of re-hydration. So they don't have quite the texture and juiciness desired for a great hamburger.
But you know what? They look great! No one else will know how thinly you originally sliced the tomato. They'll just be amazed at your ability to slice a tomato so thinly. Having a bright red tomato to put on hamburgers during the off-season will be greatly appreciated. And in times of crisis, being able to maintain some normalcy is important to keeping up morale. Being able to put tomatoes on hamburgers (and even being able to have hamburgers!) is a small, but very simple and easy thing to do.
What about the rest of the dehydrated tomatoes? The broken pieces? Or what about dehydrating tomatoes for other purposes? Yes, I'm getting to that.
To turn your dehydrated tomatoes into powder, simply place them in your blender and give them a whirl until they are powder. That's it.
However, some blenders may cause the tomato powder to get a little heated in the process. If that is the case, spread your powder on a plate or tray and let cool completely. If you have purchased tomato powder in the past, you will recall that it is a nice, tomato-ey red.
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| commercially dehydrated tomato powder |
Your home dehydrated tomato powder will not have that same bright color, but will be of a more orange-rust color. I'm not quite sure why that is, but anyway.... After the powder is completely cooled, transfer it into a glass jar that can be vacuum-sealed for long-term storage. You do not want moisture getting in and spoiling all your tomatoes--and your work.
Use your tomato powder to thicken tomato-based soups or stews. As a general guideline, for tomato sauce, combine in a 1:4 ratio of powder to water. For tomato paste, combine in a 1:2 ratio of powder to water. But for best results, and for just the thickness you want, don't use these measurements. Just begin with some tomato powder and add water until you get the consistency you want.
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