Dried tomato storage
Carolyn M Wetzel
tomatoes by the following method:
The fresh roma tomatoes were cut into wedges, sprinkled with kosher
salt, dried in a dehydrater to a leathery texture, dipped in vinegar, and
packed into a sterilized glass jar. Olive oil was added to cover the
tomatoes. Here is my question: Can these jars be stored at room
temperature, as my recipe stated, or must they be stored in the
refrigerator? Since the tomatoes are dried, I would expect that RT is okay
but I would like some verification of this. The jars I've stored on the
shelf have a lovely red olive oil infusion, while the refrigerated jars have
not developed the color, plus in the cold the olive oil has semi-solidified,
so I would like to be able to store them all at RT. However, the pleasant
taste and appearance of the product is not worth the unpleasantness of food
poisoning!
Thank you in advance for your advice.
-Carolyn
--
Carolyn M. Wetzel cmwe...@iastate.edu
Postdoctoral Research Associate Tel. 515/294-7784
Department of Botany Bessey Hall
Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 50011-1020
BASEL, LESLIE
> I would like some feedback about the safety of storing dried
>tomatoes by the following method:
> The fresh roma tomatoes were cut into wedges, sprinkled with kosher
>salt, dried in a dehydrater to a leathery texture, dipped in vinegar, and
>packed into a sterilized glass jar. Olive oil was added to cover the
>tomatoes. Here is my question: Can these jars be stored at room
>temperature, as my recipe stated, or must they be stored in the
>refrigerator?
Carolyn,
They sound fine to me--the steps you describe are the way I handle
dried tomatoes, and I'm still alive to type this! Really, I think
you are safe on a number of fronts:
1. The salt and the drying process brought your tomatoes below
35 % water content.
2. The few drops of vinegar were taken up by the tomatoes/and you
probably got a few drops into the olive oil, acidifying it.
3. Oil itself is a preservative, keeping the water content low.
I store them at RT, away from the stove. The only thing that I
think you need to watch for is to make sure that the tomatoes
are fully immersed in the oil. Mold can get a foothold in your
lovely jar if the tomatoes poke up above the oil. What I do is
weight 'em down with a clean jar lid that I can get into the
jar. (A good use for those old 2 piece jars lids that you can't
reuse to make a vacuum seal.)
Your refrig tomatoes in oil have a bit less flavor--however, there's
no harm done.
There's *nothing* like tomato flavored oil in a salad, or in
tapenade...
Leslie
l...@ccit.arizona.edu
Kodiak
: In article <3a0i6n$1...@news.iastate.edu>, cmwe...@iastate.edu (Carolyn M Wetzel) writes...
: > I would like some feedback about the safety of storing dried
: >tomatoes by the following method:
Ok..This may sound stupid, but aren't sun dried tomatoes just dehydrated
tomatoes? I have dried some and just keep them in a jar. I didn't salt
them and I don't keep them in oil....What is truly the difference? I can
rehydrate them in oil and they work great...
BASEL, LESLIE
>
>Ok..This may sound stupid, but aren't sun dried tomatoes just dehydrated
>tomatoes? I have dried some and just keep them in a jar. I didn't salt
>them and I don't keep them in oil....What is truly the difference? I can
>rehydrate them in oil and they work great...
That's fine too. The salt was just to make the tomatoes dry a bit
faster (salt on the tomatoes moves the water out of the tomatoes to
the surface)...keeping the tomatoes in the oil might make the tomatoes
a bit more pliable. And then you flavor the oil, so you get an
extra bonus...2 condiments for the price of one.
Drying the tomatoes was the real preserving principle.
Leslie
l...@ccit.arizona.edu
D. McMenamin
oil. If you really want the oil, add it later.
Dianna
--
Serendipity favors the chaotic mind.
Dianna McMenamin
dmcm...@mhc.mtholyoke.edu