chepup for ketchup lovers

Thank you for the sweet birthday wishes, it was a great day. I will have some photos to share later in the week.

My husband cooks. He cooks most of our dinners, he likes them fancy, he often plates our food. It’s great. While he would likely disagree, wishing to cite more gourmet fare, I would say one of his specialties are potatoes.

Mashed, barbequed, roasted, fried…I don’t play favourites. Dan, in his gourmet splendour, often has a sauce to accompany his potatoes but it doesn’t stop me, erm…the kids from grabbing the ketchup from the fridge. And once that ketchup has joined us at the table nothing will stop three of my children from dipping fingers, beans or carrots into that sugary staple. My two-year-old would live on the stuff I’m sure.

For a while I’ve dreamed of making our own ketchup but shied away from imitating such a family favourite. I felt it was destined to end in failure.

But a few weeks ago when we were up to our eyeballs in salsa, crushed tomatoes and pasta sauce with 20 lbs of tomatoes unallocated, I decided to give it a go. I started with a small batch using only 4 lbs of romas. The masses approved so I made it again, tripling the recipe and tweaking it just a bit. The flavour is deeper and brighter than our usual Heinz but six of our seven samplers agreed it was delicious. We’re working on convincing the seventh. Somehow I think she’ll enjoy it once the Heinz is gone from the fridge door.

Chepup for Ketchup Lovers

This is the single sized batch. I tripled this to process for our large family.

yield: 1.5 liters

4 lbs of roma tomatoes, chopped or pureed

1 1/2 onions, chopped

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1 cup of vinegar (I used half white and half apple cider)

1 tbsp pickling salt

2/3 cup lightly packed brown sugar

2 tbsp applesauce, optional (I added this to add more sweetness without more sugar)

Half or whole jalapeno, deseeded and sliced

1/2 tsp celery seed

2 bay leaves

1/2 tsp pepper flakes

8 whole cloves

1/2 tsp whole allspice

Prepare spice bag by adding bay leaves, pepper flakes, celery seed, cloves and allspice to a square of cheesecloth and tying it tightly with string. Cut stem ends from tomatoes and either puree or chop. I pureed the tomatoes in batches in the food processor, poured them into the pot, then chopped the onions in the food processor. Add all ingredients to a large pot, bring to a gentle boil and cook for 60 – 90 until the onions are soft and the texture is desirable. After cooking, I removed the spice bag and pureed the sauce again so it would be completely smooth. Alternatively the sauce could be strained through a sieve to remove any pieces of onion.

Either process in jars or store in the fridge.

Do you have ketchup lovers in your family? Or perhaps there’s another purchased staple you can’t do without?