Once you try it, you'll never buy it again: Homemade Ketchup

I have been making my own taco sauce for the past couple of years and it's pretty easy.  Cook down tomatoes, run through a food mill, add my homemade taco seasoning & water bath it.  This year I had so many volunteer tomato plants in my garden & they are producing tomatoes to the nth degree I decided to try to make ketchup.  Why?  We are trying to eat homemade food to help our children with their epilepsy.  Less chemical or man made products going into their body. 

 

My ketchup label says this:

 

"Tomato concentrate (water & tomato paste), high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, vinegar, salt, onion powder, spice & natural flavoring."

 

Thank goodness for my Ball Blue Book of Preserving.  I found a wonderful recipe that I will use forever.

 

• 4 quarts of chopped, peeled, & cored tomatoes (abt 24 large)
• 1 cup chopped onion (1 med)
• 1/2 cup chopped sweet red pepper (1/2 medium)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
• 1 teaspoon whole allspice
• 1 teaspoon mustard seed
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 1 c sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 1/2 cups vinegar

Combine tomatoes, onion & pepper in a large sauce pot.  Cook until tomatoes are tender.  Puree using a food processor or food mill.  Cook puree rapidly until thick and reduced by one-half.  Tie whole spices in a spice bag.  Add spice bag, sugar, salt & paprika to tomato mixture.  Simmer 25 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent sticking.  Remove spice bag,  Ladle hot ketchup into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch head space.  Adjust two piece caps.  Process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.  Yields about 3 pints.

  

To peel tomatoes lightly cut an X into the skin and drop them into boiling water.  Leave them in the water for about 10 seconds and put them in cold water (ice water is preferred).  The skins will slide off.  Core & cut.  Leave pot uncovered.  Once soft run through food mill to remove seeds.

  

Once reduced add spice bag & other ingredients. 

 

*Remember to use iodine free salt or sea salt when canning.

The finish product.  This picture does not do it justice.  The color is vibrant.  It's a deep red-orange almost like the color of marinara sauce.  The flavor is AH-MAZING.

 In the water bath canner my pretties.

The finish product:

 

 

4 pints of tomato heaven.  While it is not a thick as store bought, probably because there is no corn syrup to thicken it, but it comes very close.  If you cooked it down a bit longer it would be more like store bought.  My has the consistency of taco sauce. 

 

NOTE: I don't know how many quarts of tomatoes I had.  I just used what tomatoes were ready, I probably used more. than the recipe calls for.  I did cook my sauce longer than it said and at a higher temperature.  I think from start to finish it took about 8-10 hours, mostly just waiting for the puree to cook down.