LOL! That last little still life is a keeper. ;)

The roasted dried tomatoes look nice!

I mostly do them for soup, so they're deep red plums, almost overripe, halved and lightly oiled. I used to peel them but found it didn't make any difference to the soup, so I just put them in, cut side down on parchment, skins, seeds, stem scar and all, and clean 'em up when they're done. Then they peel and seed really easily. :) The skin protects them and I can get a deeper roasty toasty flavor.

Salt pepper garlic olive oil and tomatoes sliced or quartered - roasted as low and slow as I have patience... er time for. Even horrible winter romas are good roasted long enough. Real summer ripe tomatoes are amazing.

I have been meaning to experiment with the dehydrator. But thought I would partially dry then finish in the oven. Yours look delicious!

Your dehydrator can hold a 3D object? I wish I had one of those. I'd try dehydrating all sorts of things. What brand/type is it?

I cut mine in half, season and oil, and slow roast cut side up for several hours. They lose a lot of volume and if they are wet they continue to roast until they're not. Yours don't look like they've lost much volume so I'm guessing mine are drier? Can we see some of yours cut in half? I also like the caramelized flavor mine develop, which I don't "see" in yours.

Yours look interesting though and I'd like to give it a try. What temp did you use and for about how long? I'll post a more informed comparison after I've tried them side by each.

Edit - I misread the original post. So you dehydrate then roast. Makes more sense. Details?

This post was edited by foodonastump on Sun, Sep 28, 14 at 14:18

I roasted today, I was checking in on them to turn them around so I thought I would take their picture. Of course nothing as flamboyant as DC's but I'm sure they will taste good in my spaghetti sauce.

I didn't grow this year so these were from the farmer's market. It was late Sunday so I got a bargain on these.

Thank you everyone!

John, I have the Excalibur dehydrator. You can pull out the drawers for dehydrating bigger items. I have regularly dehydrated whole chickens to make the skin crispy.

FOAS, the dehydration purpose is mostly to dry up the exterior. When the exterior is dry, the sugar content is higher, therefore the caramelization gets much quicker without overcooking the interior, which can turn the tomatoes watery. Depending on what I am trying to accomplish, and what kind of tomatoes I am using, the ones shown in the photos I had them dried for 8 hours at 135F.

Kathy, those look wonderful. Should be great for soup, maybe German tomato soup?

dcarch

dcarch always has such beautiful pictures - the food is too pretty to eat!

I've been roasting tomatoes, only about an hour (depending on how juicy) on 425, even the paste tomatoes were watery. Then I peel and freeze them to use later. mustangs, what's your secret to not having watery tomatoes? Slow roast at low temp, high temp??? I don't have time to dehydrate all mine, I have gallons that needed to be used ASAP (and I've got about 45-50 lbs in the freezer, just cut the bad spots and cores out, cut up the bigger ones, and froze in gallon bags to deal with later - sent 4 bags - 22 lbs - to my parents' freezer last weekend).

Thanks

Thanks DC! I haven't decided how to use them...if there are any left after I eat them like candy.

AJS, secret to not having watery tomatoes I use a grapefruit spoon and scrape out the seeds.