That’s pretty much the post, I have always eaten them without knowing how they are safe to eat.
In: 869
They’re treated with salt before being laid out to dry. Then since they’re losing vast amounts of their water during the process, they’re less hospitable environments for bacteria to grow. Between losing so much water and containing a bunch of salt, bacteria really don’t have a chance.
Dry them in a oven. I don’t think commercial company’s dry them outside, it’s just one of those things with a confusing name.
They need sun and air. That’s mostly it. Lightly salting will inhibit bacterial growth.
If you can, use a drying box with window screen over it to keep bugs from laying egs without inhibiting airflow.
I have made sun-dried tomato paste once the traditional way. The amount of salt does not let bugs to approach
I have made them outside (very hot in AZ).
You get some new window screen from home depot.
Lay the tomatoes on a vented sheet (I have a couple pizza pans that work really well, one is like just mesh, the other is like a big round cookie sheet but full of holes). Top with the screen. I pop them on a chaise lounge or somewhere elevated, not right on the ground. Direct sun. Sometimes I turn them over one by one, if it’s not that hot, that seems to speed them up – but I often do this with cherry tomatoes and it can take a long time so sometimes I just leave them until they’re dry. Never had a bug get to them, and they keep forever. No mold and they taste great even a few years later. I don’t know if this work work as well in a humid area though.
The tomatoes themselves are a little acidic so I think that helps keep any cooties from sprouting.
I’ve used a solar oven to make jerky with mangos, dry banana, apple, etc. This is the box with wire trays and 5 mirrors pointing at the trays. If a fly tried to land on that fruit, he’d be cooked before he could do so. Bacteria/mold spores just wouldnt survive.
Ive no idea about the sun dried stuff you purchase.
?? Food dehydrator. These are my snack of choice
You can put them under glass. If the tray is angled, the heated air will flow up and out. Enshroud the edges and make an inlet at the bottom and an outlet at the top. Put screen material over the ins and outs, and you’ll get sun-dried tomatoes with no bugs.
The truth is they are very rarely sun dried. I make ‘sun dried tomatoes’ all the time. In my dehydrator.
But like anything preserved, the ‘old’ time honored way is salting it and/or smoking it. Jerky, fish, preserved meats, what have you. There are other ways. Cheeses form a rind of mold. Or we protect it with wax. Vinegar pickles things; bacteria don’t like that. We make preserves by adding a ton of sugar, then gelatin to firm it up. Boiling it kills the nasties, sugar makes them stay away.
The real question is ‘how do we make things unpalatable to bacteria/insects’ and the answer is: too salty, too sweet, too acidic or any combination thereof.
Edit 1: Yes, there are also physical methods. I also once made a tray of screen between to pieces of wood; I actually made a stack of five with a little lock on them to also keep raccoons and varmints out, but again, the chemical means are the ones we use most and most effectively. Mostly, salt or sugar.
Edit 2: Actually going beyond eli5 and making it like, eli 15 or so (because I can’t help myself) the reason this all works is basically scale. I’m 6’1, 230 lbs. If a grain of table salt touches me, well, fine. Your standard fruit fly is… much smaller. If it touches a grain of salt, half the liquid leaves its body and it dies. If a single celled organism comes within the range of diffusion of a grain of salt, it’s membrane ruptures and it bleeds out instantly. So we can consume (comparatively) HUGE quantities of salt, sugar, vinegar, etc, with (virtually) no consequences, whereas it is absolutely mortal for tiny bacteria and insects. The chemical process is still the same; eating salty, preserved food will dehydrate a human. Then we just drink a bunch of water, because the process is slower inside of us. Its the same with say, alcohol. Alcohol will instantly rupture the membrane of a bacteria, because the rate of diffusion will cause it to explode. It works the same inside me, but it will take another 10-20 years, because I am so large.
Edit 3: In America they are rarely ‘sun dried.’ Nothing in an American grocery store is ‘natural.’ We mass produce food. If you bought ‘sun dried tomatoes’ in a jar, they were dehydrated in an industrial dehydrator on a conveyor belt, slid into a jar filled 1/4 with oil, topped off and capped by a machine. Same with your mangoes, pineapple, whatever you want. We have a machine for that. Other countries, I can’t comment on.
I grow mostly cherry tomatoes and dehydrate them overnight then freeze. I do about 30 kgs per season – easy fit 2kg (pre dehydrate weight) into sandwich bag. This keeps me in tasty morsels all winter as they are a great addition to casseroles and stews.
A lean period over spring and early summer keeps me keen to taste the fresh ones. Then the drying cycle starts again. As I chop them myself there are no bugs allowed.
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