Recipe: How to Make Your Own Ketchup
By Amelia Tucker
What food comes to mind when talking about tomatoes?
Ketchup!!
No matter how you use this condiment, Ketchup is a must in everyone’s fridge.
It has come a long way since the earliest version, a Chinese delicacy based on Soy sauce with nary a tomato to be found. There are some pretty amazing forms of ketchup-both sweet and savory, green, red, spicy or mild.
Here is a recipe for a basic tomato ketchup, tried and true. The only trouble you may find is getting your children to use it spooned out of a pint jar instead of shaken or squeezed out of a bottle.
Ingredients:
4 quarts of ripe tomatoes
1 large onion
1 large sweet pepper
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp allspice-whole
1 stick cinnamon
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp salt
1 1/2 cup vinegar(I use cider but you can use white)
- Chop all veggies and remove any seeds.
- Combine in large saucepan and cook over medium until soft enough to mash all the bits.
- Press softened mixture through a food mill and return to saucepan.
- Cook and stir on high until reduced by half (be careful as this is brutally hot and will splatter)
- Add sugar and salt to thickened tomato mixture.
- Tie whole spices into a cheesecloth bag and gook on low for 1/2 an hour, stirring often.
- Add vinegar and cook until thick once again.
- Ladle the finished mixture into hot, sterilized pint jars and leave 1/4 inch headspace.
- Process for 10 minutes in a hot water bath.
Let flavors blend for about a week if you can not wait longer and enjoy!
