Here's a question that has been brought about by all the talk of
vegetarians and such...

Does anyone have any good recipes for smoked tomatoes?

I saw some articles a while back about smoked tomatoes being used by
vegetarians and people on low-sodium diets using them in place of
Bacon Bits. They were putting them on things like salad, eggs, grilled
cheese...

every time I tried to smoke some, I ended up with a product that was
almost interchangeable with my charcoal....

Any tips or techniques would be appreciated..

thanx,

Jon C.

Jon Choate wrote:

> Here's a question that has been brought about by all the talk of
> vegetarians and such...
>
> Does anyone have any good recipes for smoked tomatoes?
>
> I saw some articles a while back about smoked tomatoes being used by
> vegetarians and people on low-sodium diets using them in place of
> Bacon Bits. They were putting them on things like salad, eggs, grilled
> cheese...
>
> every time I tried to smoke some, I ended up with a product that was
> almost interchangeable with my charcoal....
>
> Any tips or techniques would be appreciated..

Love them smoked tomatoes. I do them a lot. I smoked about 50 pounds of
tomatillos a few weeks ago.

When you smoke/dry something as high in sugar as tomatoes you have
to make sure and keep the temp down. Once you burn the sugars there's
no bringing them back. I try and keep it at 150 F, with a maximum of around
160. Otherwise you'll end up with a burnt, overcaramelized result.

I cut them in half and put them on oiled racks cut side up. Smoke
them for at least 16 hours, up to 24 hours. Towards the end
once they have enough smoke for your taste you can move them to a
very low oven to finish drying. Usually you'll want at least 12
hours of smoke.

The objective is to make them similar to dried chiles... leathery, but
not brittle. I have some pics if you're interested.

--
Reg email: RegForte (at) (that free MS email service) (dot) com

>
> The objective is to make them similar to dried chiles... leathery, but
> not brittle. I have some pics if you're interested.

very interested...you can send them to the above address...

do they reconstitute well?

J

Jon Choate wrote:

>>The objective is to make them similar to dried chiles... leathery, but
>>not brittle. I have some pics if you're interested.
>
>
> very interested...you can send them to the above address...

I'll post them to alt.binaries.food

> do they reconstitute well?

If you do it right, yes. That's the reason you don't want to overcook
them. Once you cook the sugars too much and blacken them you're limited
to using them ground.

If you dry them slowly, don't burn them, and pull them before
they overcook, they're much more versatile. In their pristine state,
you can make smoked tomato pesto (etc) with them by reconstituting them.
If you toast them some more in the oven, you can grind them and use them
as a spice. It's really great in rubs, added to chile powder, etc.

--
Reg email: RegForte (at) (that free MS email service) (dot) com

> Smoked tomatoes--sound great. Two quick questions: one, how do you store
> them and, two, what would you guess would be the shelf life?

As I have not successfully made any (yet)I'm gonna leave the
correctness and technicals up to Reg....but my best guess would be to
treat em like beef jerky or chipotles....in storage and shelf life...

> Smoked tomatoes--sound great. Two quick questions: one, how do you store
> them and, two, what would you guess would be the shelf life?

As I have not successfully made any (yet)I'm gonna leave the
correctness and technicals up to Reg....but my best guess would be to
treat em like beef jerky or chipotles....in storage and shelf life...