One of the blessings I’ve gotten from participating with Bountiful Baskets is the ability to change my family’s opinion about food. In the three years that I’ve been participating and volunteering (and running my own site, and facilitating many other sites in my state), my family has stopped eating at McDonald’s, started eating many more homemade meals, and finally – they’ve started requesting that I make staples for them.
Case in point:
My teenage son, who loves ketchup, used the last of the store-bought ketchup the other day. Instead of telling me we needed to buy more, he pointed to the orange tomatoes sitting on the counter from my contribution last week and informed me that we should turn them into ketchup.
*love*
I combined two ketchup recipes (one from Ball Canning, and the other from Tart and Sweet: 101 Canning and Pickling Recipes for the Modern Kitchen) to come up with something that fit our taste, and this is what I ended up with:
Ingredients
- 2 quarts chopped tomatoes
- 1 yellow bell pepper, deseeded and chopped
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 tbsp salt
- 1/2 tbsp ground black pepper
- 1/2 tbsp yellow curry powder
- 1/2 tbsp turmeric powder
- 1/2 tbsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tbsp ground fennel seed
Instructions
- Place tomatoes, pepper, and onion in a non-reactive saucepan and cook over medium heat until tomatoes start to soften. Remove from heat and process in a food processor or blender in batches until smooth. Return to pan.
- Add remaining ingredients and bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and simmer until the ketchup reaches desired consistency. I like mine a bit thinner - but it coats the back of a spoon. The mixture will thicken as it cools.
- Ladle ketchup into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Wipe the rims and seal. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes, adjusting for elevation.
- Yield: varies depending on how much you cook down the sauce. I ended up with 3 pints and a 10-oz jar that I stuck in the fridge.
Thank you for clarifying that. How in the world did you know this? Never in a million years would I have thought of such a thing!
Lots and lots of reading. I tend to read cookbooks like they’re novels. 😉
You lost me at “non-reactive” saucepan…..
LOL. Something that won’t react with the vinegar. So, no cast iron.
YUM! Thanks Whitney!
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What is the fridge life for this ketchup?
I am not sure. It has a lot of vinegar, which leads me to believe it will last as long as commercial ketchup, but honestly it gets used within 3 weeks in my house. So, it lasts for 3 weeks for sure. 😉