Dried tomatoes do contain the seeds and skins as you see. They can be finely ground (probably in some kind of very expensive commercial process) and made into a powder, which I like to use here. Because the skins and seeds are hard to deal wth and tend to leave a off taste, they get removed. You could use a Villaware or Squeezo to strain out the solids, and then either cook it down, or start with fresh tomatoes that are very meaty, and remove as much of the liquid around the seeds as possible, then strain and dehydrate. Reconstituting dried can be accomplished by using a tomato juice, and heating the mixture. Because the acid will usually not evaporate or boil off, it becomes a more acidic product once dried. Making it too dense, may be cause for concern as it may not can well when very thick. Think of it as being the same as pumpkin puree, which is too dense to can in any method. Maybe the best approace is to soften and simmer the dried tomatoes in water or juice, then once they are very soft, force the mixture through the strainer to remove seeds and skins, then you would have a fairly thick mixture (provided you used as little liquid as possible) that can be canned. Kind of like cooking a batch of aborio rice, where you add only a small amount or liquid in stages.

I am wondering why you would want to add liquid or dilute the flavor when tom paste is usually used to thicken and add tomato flavor?

Can't it just be used as a powder?

Maybe I'm missing something........

Deanna

Tomato powder makes a really great tomato paste, but just adding a bit of water. Just simply drying the tomatoes and grinding them up, may not be a good way to get the best flavor, so thats why the seeds and skins are removed, and the you dry the rest. I use the powder to thicken some tomato sauces, if there is too much water settling to the bottom, below the pasta. Rarely, do I use tomato paste anymore.

My husband loves cherry tomatoes but I always end up with way too many. A few years ago I started drying the excess then grinding them into powder. I use the powder in place of tomato paste. I've never had a problem with seeds or skins, they just become powder. As for the taste, it's fine, no off taste. Maybe it's because I only used cherry tomatoes, I don't know. This year the varieties were: black cherry, sweet 100, sungold & dr. carolyn. The combination made a deep flavored well rounded tomato powder. I add powdered dried garlic, leek & oregano to the tomato powder and reconsitute with water for quick pizza sauce.

Whe I made a batch of sauce from regular plum type tomatoes, I ran them through a Villaware strainer to remove the seeds and skins. The waste was run through a second time to remove a bit more. I had used some of the liquid to attempt to cook down the skins and seeds and even tried to puree it in my Vitamix blender. The seeds didn't seem to get pulverized as I ad hoped for. I cooked the mixture some, and found it to be quite bitter, so it was tossed. It may be that the cherry tomatoes have smaller and fewer seeds, so they don't affect the flavor as much. Last year, my tomatoes were all supposed to be big beefy types, but a few had grown ito small cherries and a slightly larger oblong shaped grape tomato. The cherry ones were blah, but the grape type were really good tasting, almost like their bigger plum types. I saved some seeds from some of them, in hopes to grow a few more. My cherry tomatoes all seem to split open when we get vast temperature changes in the late summer. The grape type, help up quite well all the way to a frost. I agree that for a sauce or any tomato product you make, is always going to taste good with several varieties of tomatoes used. I haven't made a powder, as I can get a big 1-2 pound jar for a couple of bucks, compared to the cost it would be for me to do them myself. I do make a dried sweet pepper powder however, as that goes well with many things.

I dry cherry tomatoes, too, but never thought of making them into a powder. Will that require a coffee mill, or will a food processor do?

KS, how do you make dried sweet pepper powder? I'm not really happy with the sweet pepper rings I dried, though I did blanch them first. Maybe there's something else I need to do?

Here is a link that might be useful: my website

When I dry the peppers there is nothing done to them except to cut them open, remove the seeds and then cut into pieces. I DO NOT blanch anything that I plan to dry and dehydrate. About the only thing that may work well with a blanch before drying is potato slices. If they are partially cooked they don't usually turn black, but I use a dip of sodium metabisulfate as an antioxident for the potato slices. Mine lasted over a year stored in big half gallon Ball jars. I use a dehydrator and the cleaned cut up peppers take a couple of days to dry to a crisp state. I use a small coffee grinder (like a mini blender), and do small batches which are run through a course holed sieve to cull out the larger pieces. These get run through again. I usually end up with a course granulated pepper powder, which as a mix of mostly red and a few green peppers. I ground up over two bushels two years ago, and these were dried and shrank down to fill two quart jars. The tomatoes will be difficult to pulverize the seeds. With small cherry tomatoes, the seeds are smaller, but if there are a lot, they will make it a bitter tasting tomato powder. The tomatoes should all be cut in halves prior to drying. If its not done, they can sour and spoil before they reach the dry state. I tried grinding up some regular dried tomatoes to make a powder, but the seeds would not break down very well. I used a Vitamix (very powerful blender with reversable blades), as well as a regular blender and neither made a fine enough powder. Now, I buy the tomato powder by the pound and its like fine salt in its consistancy. Add a little water and its a very thick paste. When I make the dried peppers, I like using pimento types as they are a lot thicker compared to a regular bell pepper. The pimentos are sweet and ripen to red much quicker too. Last summers 30 plants yielded me over 2 bushels, and most were dried. A few were stuffed with rice and ground beef, then frozen. They have pointed ends and do not stand up, but thats not an issue unless you like a fancy presenation. I also grow the pimanto type for the roasted red pepper spread, and last summer I also made a few jars of whole roasted peppers packed in pint jars with some added ascorbic and citric acid, as well as salt. I processed them in a BWB but gave them 45 minutes, even though the jars were filled with boiling whole peeled and deseeded peppers.

For tomato powder how about if I cook them some, put them through a Squeezo, let them sit in a strainer for a couple hours (freezing the liquid drainings in ice cube trays for soup extenders), pour the pulp out thinly on a sheet in the dehydrator, dry them until leathery, cut them up into smaller pieces using a pizza cutter, then returning to dehydrator without the sheets to final crisp dried stage (carefully), and finally whizzing them in a coffee grinder. I have tried the commercial tomato powder and while it is OK it is can't nearly be as tasty as mixed heirloom tomatoes' dried flavor. If you don't grow your own tomatoes or not enough, then I think it a good plan to use the commercial powder. It does seem, when writing it out, that it takes a lot of time, but really it is just a lot of steps that can be done while doing 6 other things. Since I will have 87 different heirloom varieties this year (about 175 plants total), more than ever before, I did and will spend a lot of time in my summer kitchen canning and freezing and drying so this tomato powder will be something I'll do while "sun" drying my San Marzano and Principe Borghese tomatoes in the adjacent dehydrator, with their seeds and all. I think it is so much better an idea for making paste from powder than my original post for how to use dried tomatoes (bitter seeds and all) for paste.

This forum is so inspirational. Thanks to all of you.

Nancy

I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work. It's definitely a worthy experiment. You may find if the tomato residue is sufficiently dry that you can even use a food processor (if desired) and speed up things a bit compared to a coffee grinder.

The only thing I'm thinking of is there may be value in keeping dried pulp and then whirring in small batches unless you want to get into adding some kind of anti-dessicant (which I wouldn't). Without it it will be hard to keep large amounts of powder from absorbing moisture and turning into bricks.

Carol

I put a small stapled paper towel "pillow" of instant dried milk powder in all my containers of dehydrated food as a desiccant (anti-desiccants keep moisture in like those used to spray plant leaves to protect from ice or frost). Dry powders would be kept in small containers since even ambient air's humidity rehydrates dried foods every time the container is opened. Believe me, dehydrating foods in the South is a challenge given our high humidity, the highest is always right at harvest time.

Nancy

Wow, that process sounds like a LOT of extra work!! Cooking, straining, draining, drying, grinding.. With all that effort, you would have to be doing a LOT of tomatoes. Keep in mind that a tomato is about 85% water, and a few percent of that is bitter seeds and skins. Leaving the skins in, might be ok, but even for that, they need some very special grinding to break the particle size down small enough to call it a powder. There is also a food grade silicon dioxde that is used as a flow agent in keeping things lke salt from clumping up. I use it here for a meat flavoring that contains soy and a few other ingredients that tend to soak up moisture.

I dried excess cherry tomatoes this past summer and than powdered them in a blender. It worked fairly well. I did not remove skin or seeds. The powder has caked but I scrape the cake with a fork until I have enough powder which I add to rice along with canned salsa for Spanish rice. It beats buying tubed tomato paste which I never use up or canned tomato paste.

I'm along the south TX coast with extremely high humidity. But, don't feel the need to add chemicals to powdered things.

Of course you're right. I meant dessicant. Never thought of powdered milk. That's interesting.

Here is a great source for the tomato powder I keep mine in the fridge and it has not caked up or lost any color yet. The source link below also carries MANY different dried berries and fruits.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bulk Foods

Thanks ksrogers -that is a great site for dried foods. I still will make my own tomato powder since I grow so many of them and where I sell them the foods offered have to be grown by the farmer who sells them - hey, is that ME? The FARMER?

However, for my own use the prices for dried pineapple and filberts can't be beat for their bulk pricing. Thanks for the link.

readinglady - Powdered dry milk is also what I use for my home collected seed storage packages. It is "organic", absorbs moisture, and if the pillow is broken no harm is done.

Nancy

They do sell the silica gel packets as well as reactivatable dessicant packets of all sizes in the internet.

Uh, yeah, but aren't they highly toxic if ingested? I don't think they are approved for food use. I would put the packets with my leather goods or electronic parts, but not in my precious tomato powder.

Nancy

The packets are clearly visable and are used in mediactions and many other things. As mentioned, they do sell silicone dioxide as a powder. Its very light weight and works well if added to stuff that tends to clump up on its own. Silicone dioxide is food grade.

Here is a link that might be useful: Silicone dioxide source

Interesting post. I do dry my own lemon/garlic, etc. salts and with very little problem with moisture on storing in room air.

However, I was hesitant about storing dried cherry toms that way, so freeze them in Shur-Pak containers - mostly for use in stir fries or pastas - never have powdered them - yet.

About "packets" for the dried milk powder, used for dessicants - I used to buy the bulk bags for making - well tea bags, but then started using a stainless steel ball-type tea holder to make tea and forgot them. Now I'm wondering where I ordered those little ready-made bags. They would be great for holding the dried milk powder, used as a dessicant.

Must try this - when my "maters" come in.

Just my 2 c's.

Bejay

Tea Ball. I used to see them at places like the Christmas Tree shops.

Ken - I mean the little pillows that you fill with herbs, etc. They would be fine for use with dry milk - for use as a dessicant - as in the above posts.

Can't remember where I used to buy them tho.

I think my computer is "going out" - or - it has been hit by a virus - or slipped back into dial-up. Soooo slow.

Bejay

Paper toweling works just fine and a whole lot less expensively. Papers for tea are very hard to find in small quantities. You could use drawstring muslin bags, they sell them for herbs, but the powder sifts through. Another alternative is coffee filters. Just cut out and fold over some type of food grade paper and staple or sew (don't glue because that is not "food safe").

This probably should be a separate post because people questioning desiccants won't be looking in a post for dried tomatoes for paste.

ksrogers - (Not silicone) Silicon dioxide is "food safe" but not something I want to ingest. Silica is sand like they make glass out of. Our bodies shed it but those with gastrointestinal problems should stay far away from it. PLEASE DO NOT INHALE IT IF YOU USE IT. Silicosis is nasty.

Nancy

Well aware of it, after years of working with a LOT of asbestos! I also used a product called 'Cabosil', which were microscopic tiny glass bubbles, and used as filler/thickener in some epoxies. The SD is very light weight and even breathing near it will raise its particles into the air. We all ingest a lot of things we would not want, but even plain table salt has this in it as do many kinds of spice mixes and lots of prepackaged goods.

I see readinglady "came to the rescue-again" as she remembered where to buy those little tea bag stuffers. She is an amazing lady - my hat is off to her for all of her many contributions to this fine forum.

I also have some older coffee filters - left from an upgraded coffee maker that might work just fine. Will try that too.

Of OT interest (again) the silica sand mentioned - in Ken's post - is harvested not far from here - an old bed of hardened skeletons from sea creatures millions of years old, which is located about 4 miles from the ocean.

They also call it diatomaceous earth - and gardeners use it to thwart slugs and snails in the garden. The sand has hard sharp edges that perforate the snail/slugs body. Home Depot also sells it as a blasting sand, used in construction, because of it's cutting properties (removing old paint, etc).

Just my 2 c's. (sorry). But I do want to use dried tomatoes for paste anyway - this summer. That's a cool idea and in a small way, helps to eliminate the problem of whether to use bottled lemon juice in my tomatoes - saves on canning jars, freezer/shelf space, etc.

Bejay

Another abrasive is baking soda. Anyone who has worked with an SS White, would know about that.