Homemade Ketchup
I have made this ketchup for over 15 years (2023). I received the original recipe from my mother-in-law who got it from a local friend. It doesn't really compare to store-bought ketchup but we think it tastes much better. It doesn't contain any preservatives which is important to me.
I will first share the original recipe and then my version of that recipe.
Ketchup ~ Original Recipe
12 pounds of tomatoes
3 medium onions
2 bell peppers
Cut up the tomatoes, onions, and peppers and cook just until done. Drain in a large colander, allowing the juice to collect in a bowl. My mother-in-law says she often cooks the tomatoes on day one, allows the juice to drain overnight in a bowl, and continues the process the next day. Water will rise to the top of the bowl and the tomato juice will sit on the bottom of the bowl. The water can be ladled off which helps cut down on cooking time. Discard the skins and seeds.
2 bell peppers
Cut up the tomatoes, onions, and peppers and cook just until done. Drain in a large colander, allowing the juice to collect in a bowl. My mother-in-law says she often cooks the tomatoes on day one, allows the juice to drain overnight in a bowl, and continues the process the next day. Water will rise to the top of the bowl and the tomato juice will sit on the bottom of the bowl. The water can be ladled off which helps cut down on cooking time. Discard the skins and seeds.
Add the following ingredients to your tomato juice:
3 cups sugar
1 pint vinegar
3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp dry mustard
Cook on medium-high until it reaches the desired thickness. As the sauce begins to thicken, it must be stirred vigorously so that it does not stick to the bottom of the pan.
Once the sauce has reached the desired thickness, pour it into pint or half-pint jars and seal. (My mother-in-law does not process the jars in a hot water bath canner. She pours ketchup into hot jars, applies lids and rings, and allows the lids to seal as the jars cool.)
T Cupp's Ketchup
12-13 pounds of tomatoes
3/4 Cup of Pureed Onions
1 Cup pureed bell peppers
1 Cup pureed bell peppers
3 cups sugar
1 pint vinegar
3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1 pint vinegar
3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp dry mustard
Instructions
Cook your tomatoes until they are soft and then press them through a sieve to remove the skins and seeds. It should yield about a gallon of juice. You can put the juice in the refrigerator and wait for the water to rise to the top and then ladle the water off if you want to reduce the time you spend cooking down your ketchup. However, I choose to forego this step and immediately begin cooking down my tomato juice after straining. The water will evaporate during the process but the process will take more time.
Once you have begun reducing your tomato juice, it's time to add the additional ingredients. I puree my raw onions and peppers in a food processor and add them to the juice. I found the original recipe vague because onions and peppers come in different sizes, so I came up with a measurable pureed amount based on our personal preferences. I also feel like I get more flavor and benefits from the peppers and onions by adding them as a puree rather than just cooking them and discarding them with the tomato skins.
Add the spices and vinegar to the tomato mixture and cook the liquid down until it reaches the desired consistency. This will take hours, especially if you have not removed the water from the top of the tomato juice first. From start to finish (washing tomatoes to taking processed ketchup out of the canner) the process takes me as much as 8 hours to complete when I use a bushel of tomatoes. When your ketchup is finished, pour it into hot, sterilized jars and proceed with hot water bath canning. I process the jars for 10 minutes. (Please refer to USDA canning guidelines if you are unfamiliar with the hot water bath method of canning.)
Notes:
The recipe calls for 12-13 pounds of tomatoes which is approximately 1/4 of a bushel (1 Peck). Once you have cooked and strained your 12-13 pounds of tomatoes, you should have around a gallon of juice. This is important to note if you ever want to start with already prepared tomato juice. Last winter, I used home-canned tomato juice and made ketchup in the middle of winter.
During canning season, I often multiply and work up 4X the original recipe which would be a bushel of tomatoes. A bushel of tomatoes will yield approximately 16 quarts of juice (4 gallons). However, please note that when you make a large volume, it takes a lot longer to reduce the liquid.
Vinegar: My mother-in-law uses half the vinegar called for in the recipe. I do the same. In fact, sometimes I use 1/4 of the vinegar called for in the recipe. Please understand that most likely the amount of vinegar added was meant to increase the acidity of the final product so that it is safe to can by the hot water bath method. While we have never had any issues with botulism in our ketchup, the best way to avoid a problem would be to use the recommended amount of vinegar. The ketchup can be frozen giving you a safer option than hot water bath canning if you want to reduce the amount of vinegar. I made a batch of ketchup and froze it to test the results and the freezing did not change the flavor or consistency of the product.
Spices: Our family does not mind darker ketchup but I recently heard a woman say her family was turned off by the fact the ketchup was not a bright red like store-bought ketchup. If that is a concern for you, then you can buy whole spices and put them in a piece of muslin from which you have made a small pouch. Boil the spices in the juice until it starts to thicken, remove the bag of spices, and continue cooking down the ketchup. You will have to figure out your conversions from the ground spices to whole spices to do this. Using whole spices will leave you with brighter red ketchup. In reality, the store-bought varieties of ketchup are probably enhanced with dye.
Cooking: You can turn your stove on medium-high or even high and not have to worry about scorching if you use a sturdy, thick, stainless pot. (Enamel stock pots are too thin, An enamel-coated cast iron pot would work well.) Once the sauce begins to thicken, however, you will have to stir diligently to keep the sauce from scorching.
Consistency: Don't be disappointed if your ketchup does not turn out as thick as a commercial variety, especially if you are not using paste tomatoes. Roma or Amish paste tomatoes offer the best results. Juicer tomatoes, such as heirloom varieties, often never reach a store-bought consistency and take longer to cook down. It used to frustrate me if my ketchup didn't thicken to store-bought consistency and would add tomato paste to thicken it. That is definitely an option, but I have found that it does slightly alter the taste and I don't like adding anything with preservatives. I no longer use the paste.
I have found that in order to get a thick ketchup (without adding tomato paste), it is required to reduce your down to about 1/4 of the liquid you had in the beginning. I compared notes with my mother-in-law and we both ended up with 10 pints of ketchup out of a bushel of tomatoes/4 gallons of tomato juice.
This recipe is a lot of work and needs to come with a warning, because once your family has tried homemade ketchup, they won't want anything else!
