Does anyone know what is the best way to cut or slice up tomatoes for drying in the dehydrator? I looked at the sundried tomatoes I buy in the shop and they look like they were quartered with the juicy stuff and seeds taken out.

Thanks, Frannie

I dehydrated some this summer. I don't know whether I did it the best way. I sliced them into fairly thin slices. I probably could have used thicker slices than I did, but the trick is to get them thin enough that they dehydrate fully before they start to really spoil. I don't know what the ideal thickness is, but it probably depends on the temperature and humidity of their dehydrating environment.

I laid the slices out on solid sheets in my dehydrator, and flipped them over after several hours. All in all they went for most of a day in the dehydrator. I decided they were done when they weren't at all moist but did still have a little flexibility.

I did a bunch of cherry tomatoes too... they were a ton of work to slice and lay out on sheets, and later when I was flipping them over they were even more work to carefully peel off the sheets and lay back down on their other sides. (The annoying buggers kept sticking to my fingers!) I probably wouldn't do cherry tomatoes again, but the jar of dehydrated cherry tomato slices that I made looked pretty.

Thanks Frances,

Your dehydrated cherry tomatoes do look pretty!

I once dried cherry tomatoes in the sun (in southern Spain). As far as I remember, I cut the tomatoes into quarters and left the juice and seeds in as much as I could.

Rob

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Rob Hull - Funky Raw
My blog: [www.rawrob.com]