Ketchup

I tried to come up with a punny ketchup title but I've got nothing.  Feel free to leave your ideas in the comments! (Where's my think tank at??)

Anyway.

I bought 4 lbs or so of tomatoes at the farmers market Thursday.  The tomatoes looked amazing, and it was a rainy day so I felt for the sellers at the market.  It wasn't very crowded.

I'm in gift-making mode now, so I wanted to make something more creative than just puree or whole canned tomatoes.  I looked around on FoodInJars for awhile (best canning site ever)  but I just wasn't finding the right thing. (Although, the tomato jam and tomato butter look amazing!)  So I googled something like "tomato gift canning preserving" and low & behold, a recipe for ketchup!

I have been thinking about homemade gifts for guys.  I'm trying to make as many homemade gifts as possible & gifts for guys is tough!  So I was thinking of BBQ sauce- but I decided this ketchup would be a great starter recipe.  I'm not sure if I'll gift it, or who to, but I think with some homemade mustard & grill accessories, this could be a great housewarming gift!

Recipe (Yields 4 pints and one adorable half pint, seen above.)

I'm starting to get my food preservation confidence.  I'll be posting on that at another time.  I don't know if it was pulling bugs off my kale, or making my first jam, but I'm liking experimenting a bit & finding ways to make recipes my own (safely of course) as I preserve our garden.

4 lbs whole tomatoes (these were beefsteak, I think with Romas you might need less)
1 c apple cider vinegar
1 c white vinegar
Seasonings:
3 tbs salt
3/4 c brown sugar
Worcestershire sauce (2 tsp.)
Pinches of:
Cumin
Chili Powder
Black pepper
Garlic salt
Onion salt

1.  Quarter all tomatoes
2. We used a food processer to puree them in batches (the skins totally disappeared!)
3. Add vinegar, boil on stove 10 minutes
4. Add remaining ingredients, stir & boil for 45-60 minutes.  (We went almost 90 minutes)
5. Once it's boiled down about 30% remove from heat
6. We put ours in the fridge overnight, as it was very late.
7. Once cool, puree in a blender & use a sieve to remove seeds
8. Bring to a boil for canning

I'm not sure if this is the most efficient way to make ketchup, but it worked! It looks and tastes like fancy ketchup!

Here's all my Saturday AM canning projects....lots more to blog about!