I must confess…we have a bit of a caning obsession 🙂 As pickling cumber season has seemed to be coming to an end, the husband and I were roaming the farmer’s market for our next project in the kitchen that we could complete by canning. As it’s past jam season, our pondering led us to tomatoes and we decided on doing a ketchup (or catsup – I’m not entirely sure which is proper/correct) recipe. And of course, in stead of the traditional route, we opted for a spicy blend. Below are the results of this impromptu adventure!
Let me start by saying that this is a VERY long process so leave yourself ample time to complete the entire thing. We are quite pleased with the results, however since we aren’t huge ketchup eaters, the amount of time it took will probably leave this as our last time to make this for at least another year. It was indeed an experience & we had a blast doing it!
Ingredients/Materials:
• Tomatoes (we used Roma) – about 25 lbs (yes, you need a big basketful!) which = roughly 40 tomatoes (the fresher the better so from your own garden or a farmer’s market)
• 3 cups chopped onions 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 cloves of garlic (minced) 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard (optional)*we did not use
• 1 cup sugar (we used brown but you can use white too)
• 1 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon salt
• A piece of cheesecloth (about 12 inches square)
• 4 teaspoons whole cloves 2 teaspoons whole allspice
• 3 Tablespoons celery seed 3 cups of apple cider vinegar
• A huge pot to sanitize the jars after filling (or a pressure canner)
• Food mill or sieve (we used our blender instead)
• Pint canning jars with lids & rings (Ball is what we use – Target always has great low prices) It makes a ton – so you need at least 12 jars
• Jar grabber – to pick up the hot jars/lids (we use two rubber tipped tongs)
• 1 large pot
• 1 saucepan
• Large spoons and ladles
• Jar funnel (we have a Ball one that fits the jars perfectly – super cheap too)
Directions:
- Remove the tomato skins
- Here’s a trick you may not know: put the tomatoes, a few at a time in a large pot of boiling water for no more than 1 minute (30 – 45 seconds is usually enough) then plunge them into a waiting bowl of ice water. This makes the skins slide right off of the tomatoes!
- Remove the seeds and excess water
- After you have peeled the skins off the tomatoes, cut the tomatoes in quarters.
- Squeeze each tomato (and use your finger to scoop and shake out most of the seeds). It gets pretty messy!
- Drain the tomatoes
- Toss the squeezed tomatoes into a colander while you work on others. (This helps more of the water to drain off)
- Once finished, press down the tomatoes to squeeze out remaining water
- Get the jars and lids sanitizing
- Put hot soapy water in the sink and let soak
- Then place on a baking sheet & dry in the oven
- Cooking & seasoning the tomatoes
- Put the tomatoes in a large pot to start simmering.
- Into the pot of simmering tomatoes, put:
- Onions, cinnamon, garlic (minced), dry mustard (optional)*we did not use, cayenne pepper, brown sugar, black pepper, and salt
- Onto the piece of cheesecloth put:
o whole cloves, whole allspice, celery seed
o Tie the corners of the cloth together to make a little bag
o Put the bag into a small sauce pot with the 3 cups of apple cider vinegar
o Let it simmer for 30 minutes, while the tomatoes cook
- Bring the tomatoes to a gentle simmer
o Cook the tomatoes for about 20 – 30 minutes over medium heat to make them mushy enough to go through your food mill or sieve
- Remove the seeds and skins
o Run the cook tomato mixture through the blender (or food mill or sieve) & discard the seeds and skins that remain in the sieve (if used)
o We just mixed it al together in the blender – be careful it’s hot!
- Add the seasoned vinegar (minus the cheesecloth bag, which you may now discard), and cook down to thicken the mix
o We did this on the stove over low – medium heat, stirring frequently and it took about 1 ½-2 hours
o Or you could put it into a crock pot and let it cook down by itself. (I’ve heard this method is much easier but it also takes about 12 hours)
- Fill the jars with the ketchup to within ¼-inch of the top (using the funnel) and put the lid and rings on (hand-tighten the ring around them)
- Process (boil) the jars in the large pot or canner
o Keep them covered with at least 1 inch of water & keep the water boiling
o Process the jars in a boiling-water bath for 35 minutes
o If you have a pressure canner, use it and process the sauce for 30 minutes at a pressure of 10 to 11 pounds. (I would prefer a pressure canner, but they are expensive!)
o Lift the jars out of the water (with rubber tipped tongs or canning tongs) and let them cool without touching or bumping them in a draft-free place (usually takes overnight)
o Once open, place in the fridge
Ours turned out to be a little bit like the consistency of a thick applesauce (since we used the blender) and was a bit of a deeper red instead of what store bought ketchup looks like, but has great flavor! As this is a spicy version, it has a very “fall” feeling taste to it and has been great paired with waffle fries and sweet potato fries so far as well as burgers!
