Dehydrating onions

[longwinters]

Picked my onions early last week and they came out great.  Had about 50 of them....way too much to keep in the house as I have no root cellar or cool place to keep them.
 
Thought I'd try dehydrating them.  It seems to have worked really well.  It's amazing how little space 35 onions take when dehydrated and vacume sealed.  Just make sure you don't dehydrate them in the house....whew!  Glad I did it in the garage.
 
Long
 
 

[hillbill]

well good deal! i had never thought about drying them.i planted a ton of them but the drought killed almost all of them here.last winter i mulched them good and just kept useing them untill it froze so hard they got mushy.ill bet the dry ones would be perfect for stew and roasts.

[longwinters]

Hillbill,
 
That is what I figured.  I threw them in the freezer and then later this winter soup and stew yum....  I used a 4 tray dehydrater.  It took about 10 hours for each batch.
 
Long

[powderman]

WE keep dehydrated onions all the time for when we run out of fresh, like we did Sunday making a pot of beans. YES, freeze them after drying, they too can get bugs. We learned the hard way that dring alone does not kill bug eggs. Anytime we find onions cheap we buy a bunch and dry them, carrots and celery too. Celery gets cheap around Thanksgiving so we buy a bunch and dry it every year. We picked up xtra drying trays at a goodwill store real cheap, look around.  POWDERMAN. 

[charles p]

Never dehydratd any onions.  My favorite item to dehydrate is mushrooms.  When you rehyrate them for use, the flavor is amplified and really comes out.

[longwinters]

Well I hope when I "re-hydrate" them I don't have as many tears as I did when I was cutting them up 
 
Long

[bilmac]

I dry lots of my garden produce, in our dry climate  I don't need a machine to do it I can just put my stuff on a tray and put it where the breeze moves across it. Drying and then using a vacuum sealer is a great way to concentrate your food. I can dry 30 or 40 tomatoes and then vacuum package them and reduce the volume down to about the size of a box of 30-30s.

Onions are easy, and they are familiar. We have been using dehydrated onions for years. I find that the ones I make are almost identical to the ones you buy in the store.

[powderman]

BILMAC. How thick do you slice the tomatos?? How ripe do you want them?? We haven't tried that yet but we want to. We use the dehydrator because it's easier. We used to put green beans on screens or string them and put them up in the attic, gets real hot up there. The ones we strung up, I tied the strings on hangers, usually 4 strings to a hanger and hung them on the rafters. Used a needle and heavy thread. POWDERMAN. 

[bilmac]

I mostly dry Roma tomatoes, they are a smallish fruit to start with. I pick them when they are at their prime. I quarter them lengthwise. I used to just dry them that way, but the flavor was way too intense.  I was watching "Good Eats" on the tube and he said to scrape the juice and seeds out of the seed chambers so I started doing that and they are a lot better now. Just remember how concentrated the dried stuff is when you cook with it. I was putting way too many dried maters in stuff I was cooking till I learned better.

[powderman]

BILMAC. I didn't raise any romas this year but will next year just for drying. Can you give me a sample of a recipe as to how you use them?? Should they be totally dried or left a bit supple to the touch?? Thanks. Supper was fresh green beans and new baby red potatoes with smoked sausage. YUM. POWDERMAN. 

[charles p]

Don't know what others do, but I have dried them, then stored them in olive oil and garlic cloves.  We then use them in spagetti type dishes.
Have also drid them and stored them in the freezer for up to a year.

[bilmac]

I dry them till they're leathery, they'll fool ya, they'll look all dried up' but when you touch them they'll still be soft. Have to touch then to know. So far I have been just vacuum bagging them and storeing them in the pantry. Sounds like Charly has an idea. I have been experimenting with dry bean dishes, and I have been using the maters in them. So far just experiments nothing like firm recipe yet. Most of the stuff I threw together was alright but nothing really good yet.

[gypsyman]

Used a salad dressing called sun-dried-tomato's. Have to get out the dehydrator, dry some out, and find a receipe. gypsyman