Thursday, November 3, 2011

What to do with Insipid Tomatoes

I read somewhere that the taste of bland or insipid-tasting tomatoes may be improved by dehydrating them. I'm thinking that the quick forced-heated air dehydration probably concentrates the sugars, making them taste sweeter. Since I had already made and canned all the tomato variations I wanted for winter...AND I still had a few non-prime, late tomatoes that generally tend to be less flavorful, I decided to give the suggestion a whirl.

First I dehydrated several trays of just thick-sliced tomatoes with no preparation other than washing and inspecting for bad/soft spots. They were cut about 3/8 of an inch thick, and dried into thin, almost membrane thickness.

Next I took several pounds of tomatoes that I dipped in boiling water to skin, then cut into wedges before dehydrating. Those also dried into thin but crumpled wedges.

The final batch was dipped, skinned, cored and rinsed of all seeds. They dried to thin membranes too.

I didn't take any photos because I was busy with some home renovation projects, but the several pounds of tomatoes processed by each treatment all dried to an almost equal amount, filling a quart jar. The REAL test will be in cooking with them this winter!

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