Homemade Ketchup?

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larry_stewart

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Anyone make their own ketchup?
Im looking for a reliable recipe, preferably one that has already tried and liked. not just a gamble from an internet search.

Also looking for one that can be canned for longer term storage.
Doesnt have to be anything gourmet or exotic. Im perfectly happy with a Heinz - Like flavor.
Just have a lot of extra tomatoes from the garden , and way too much sauce, puree, pasta, sun dried , soup from them, so looking for another way to use and store them. Plus, no more room in the freezer, which is why im looking for one that can be canned and shelf stored .
 
I use this recipe and reduce the sugar (we use honey and less than their measurement) and reduce the salt to what our taste buds are used to.
  • 24 lbs ripe tomatoes
  • 3 cups chopped onions
  • 3/4 tsp ground red pepper (cayenne)
  • 3 cups cider vinegar (5 percent)
  • 4 tsp whole cloves
  • 3 sticks cinnamon, crushed
  • 1-1/2 tsp whole allspice
  • 3 tbsp celery seeds
  • 1-1/2 cups sugar
  • 1/4 cup salt
Is it safe to can fruits without sugar?
Yes. Sugar is added to improve flavor, help stabilize color, and retain the shape of the fruit. It is not added as a preservative.
Is it safe to can food without salt?
Yes. Salt is used for flavor only and is not necessary
 
I personally have not tried after I discovered how difficult shelf stable catsup is to make. Also commercial catsup is red due to food coloring...no other reason. It's a balancing act between solids, sugars, and acids beyond my abilities to test and adjust when needed with alligation computing.

But here's a link for you so you can figure things out if you want.

https://globalrph.com/medcalcs/alligation-calculator-solutions-and-topicals-compounding/

It's the same computational method pharmaceutical companies use to balance their formulas.
 
That's not what the label says.
View attachment 62154
Now by this point you should know better than to trust what a massive corporation says.

Tomatoes are highly GMO. In fact most of your vape pens have nicotine extracted from GMO Tomatoes.

And from Heinz...I would expect them to name a Tomato variety as "Red Ripe". Not what we would commonly think.
 
I use this recipe and reduce the sugar (we use honey and less than their measurement) and reduce the salt to what our taste buds are used to.
  • 24 lbs ripe tomatoes
  • 3 cups chopped onions
  • 3/4 tsp ground red pepper (cayenne)
  • 3 cups cider vinegar (5 percent)
  • 4 tsp whole cloves
  • 3 sticks cinnamon, crushed
  • 1-1/2 tsp whole allspice
  • 3 tbsp celery seeds
  • 1-1/2 cups sugar
  • 1/4 cup salt
Is it safe to can fruits without sugar?
Yes. Sugar is added to improve flavor, help stabilize color, and retain the shape of the fruit. It is not added as a preservative.
Is it safe to can food without salt?
Yes. Salt is used for flavor only and is not necessary

Thanks, Looks like this Wednesday's project.
 
Now by this point you should know better than to trust what a massive corporation says.
Because there are no government requirements on what the label has to say, right?
Tomatoes are highly GMO. In fact most of your vape pens have nicotine extracted from GMO Tomatoes.
Two things: 1) there are no genetically engineered tomatoes on the market, although tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables have been genetically modified via breeding for millennia; 2) the second sentence is a non sequitur. Assuming you're correct that nicotine is extracted from tomatoes for vape pens, it's much more likely that it's from the leaves and stems and not the fruit, since that's where it occurs.
And from Heinz...I would expect them to name a Tomato variety as "Red Ripe". Not what we would commonly think.
What makes you think they named it? And if they did, so what?
 
I made ketchup a couple of times. It was surprisingly better than store bought. I followed the recipe in the 1972 (or about then) edition of Joy of Cooking. There was no food colouring in that recipe and I didn't use any. The colour was fine. It looked like store bought ketchup, colour-wise. The texture wasn't quite as smooth as store bought.
 
I made ketchup a couple of times. It was surprisingly better than store bought. I followed the recipe in the 1972 (or about then) edition of Joy of Cooking. There was no food colouring in that recipe and I didn't use any. The colour was fine. It looked like store bought ketchup, colour-wise. The texture wasn't quite as smooth as store bought.
Was it shelf stable?
That's what always got me...mine never was. I can fix the smoothness with a hand blender and a fine tamis.

The commercially made stuff is of course going to be junk...but we consume gallons on things like French fries every year.

But if someone is capable and able to make a good one that is shelf stable I wanna hear all about it.

My tomato sauce is pumpkin orange...mostly that red solely because of the tomato paste I put in it...otherwise nope.
 
Was it shelf stable?
That's what always got me...mine never was. I can fix the smoothness with a hand blender and a fine tamis.

The commercially made stuff is of course going to be junk...but we consume gallons on things like French fries every year.

But if someone is capable and able to make a good one that is shelf stable I wanna hear all about it.

My tomato sauce is pumpkin orange...mostly that red solely because of the tomato paste I put in it...otherwise nope.
Was the colour shelf stable? Hmm, it was a few decades ago. I don't remember noticing it change colour. It may have darkened a little, but I don't remember for sure. Maybe the tomatoes I bought were redder to start with than yours. The ketchup was pretty much the same colour as the tomatoes.

When I wrote that the texture wasn't as smooth, I didn't mean that there were chunks, even tiny ones in it. It just wasn't as pasty smooth as store bought ketchup. It did separate a tiny bit, but only noticeable, when you put a blob of ketchup on your plate. There would be a tiny edge of thin liquid after a bit.
 
Was the colour shelf stable? Hmm, it was a few decades ago. I don't remember noticing it change colour. It may have darkened a little, but I don't remember for sure. Maybe the tomatoes I bought were redder to start with than yours. The ketchup was pretty much the same colour as the tomatoes.

When I wrote that the texture wasn't as smooth, I didn't mean that there were chunks, even tiny ones in it. It just wasn't as pasty smooth as store bought ketchup. It did separate a tiny bit, but only noticeable, when you put a blob of ketchup on your plate. There would be a tiny edge of thin liquid after a bit.
By shelf stable I mean that it doesn't turn bad after sitting at room temperature.
Scratch food tastes multiple times better than processed....but scratch is usually not as stable as the processed foods. Just my experience.
 
Now that it look like Im going to have quite a bit of ketchup, does anyone have a recipe to make a BBQ sauce using Ketchup as a base ? If so, is int can-able , freezable, or just gotta use it up quick ?
 
By shelf stable I mean that it doesn't turn bad after sitting at room temperature.
Scratch food tastes multiple times better than processed....but scratch is usually not as stable as the processed foods. Just my experience.
This stuff was water bath canned the first time I made it and pressure canned the second time (faster and less steam in the kitchen in summer). It was still good several years later. It was stored at a cool room temperature.
 
A bit off topic, but not totally
I noticed that if I process tomatoes with the stick blender, the colour turns more orange (same for chili's) whereas the mouli or kitchen machine leave them more red.
Could be more air mixed in? Don't know.
 
I used a food mill like this one to process the cooked tomatoes, onions, etc.

800px-13-09-01-kochtreffen-wien-RalfR-09.jpg
 
A bit off topic, but not totally
I noticed that if I process tomatoes with the stick blender, the colour turns more orange (same for chili's) whereas the mouli or kitchen machine leave them more red.
Could be more air mixed in? Don't know.
I think that happens when the white seeds are ground up also in the processor or blender. With the food mill/mouli the seeds are removed.
 
I think that happens when the white seeds are ground up also in the processor or blender. With the food mill/mouli the seeds are removed.
That makes sense. I wonder if that really is the difference.

It's so long ago since I used it for tomatoes that I had completely forgotten that it leaves the seeds behind, and the skins, if you didn't remove them earlier.
 
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I have made lots of tomato sauces for various reasons over the decades in kitchen work.
I was told the reasons but I've forgotten them. Leaving in the seeds or not has no bearing on the color but the particle size of the tomato in your created sauce does. A typical hand blender will reduce the partical size and the color will be something other than red. But a food mill will leave the particle size large enough while removing most of the seeds and skins at the same time to retain a red color.
Using skinless and seedless tomatoes to make a sauce will greatly sweeten the sauce and make it richer while leaving in the seeds and skin will increase the acids in your sauce. And depending upon the bent you wish your sauce to have is the deciding factor in how you produce your sauce.
Salsas are usually left quite acidic but a strong tomato flavor in a beef based sauce (served hot) is requiring the richer, sweeter version as an additive. Pasta sauces run the gambit....you can make a low acid sauce to make a lasagne extremely rich or a high acid for a seafood and pasta dish.
Tomatoes are extremely versatile. We use color to let people know it contains tomatoes. One reason why golden tomatoes have issues selling. (Not that they don't sell at all) Golden Tomatoes usually have a better balance between sugars and acids than red ones...but the red still outsells the golden.
 
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