Your cart is currently empty!
Meg’s Ketchup
Get updated by email whenever there’s a new post
Welp, it’s here. Now this recipe came about last summer right after my Dad passed away. I cannot find the original recipe, but I know no other recipe called for oven roasted tomatoes as the base. Personally, I think it makes this ketchup so dang delicious.
Other notable changes I’ve made to this recipe relative to the USDA tested recipe are:
- reduced sugar and salt
- reduced vinegar (by a scant 1/4 cup relative to the tomatoes)
- reduced spices
All that being said, when I had my ketchup lab tested this week for pH, it came in at 3.96 (without added citric acid). The batch that I did last week where I added citric acid tested at 3.83 pH, even lower. For safe canning, tomato-based products and other “high acid foods” must be lower than a pH of 4.6. So, if you follow this recipe and the canning process, your product should produce a similarly acidic and safe pH.
This recipe yields about 4 pints.
Yes, that’s 17.5 pounds of ripe tomatoes distilled into just 4, 1-pound jars. But if you have high quality excess tomatoes, it’s definitely a culinary experience worth trying at least once.
As an alternative to canning, you can also refrigerate and use within a month, and freeze too. As I’ve never frozen it, I don’t know if the texture would change, but the option is there for you.
Finally, I ask that because this recipe is my little creation and there’s nothing out there like it, that we keep this just between us. It may someday make it into a future book, but that’s not even on my distant horizon at the moment, though a gardening book with recipes is a goal of mine.
Yield: 4 pints
Meg's Ketchup
Prep Time
2 hours
Cook Time
8 hours
Total Time
10 hours
Ingredients
- 8.75 pounds oven roasted, skinned, and pureed tomatoes (approx. 17.5 lbs raw tomatoes, depending on the varieties)
- 2 pounds 2 oz yellow onions, diced (measured after peeled and diced)
- ½ ounce garlic (~8 small garlic cloves)
- 2 ounces diced sweet red bell pepper (optional — will add more sweetness; my lab tested recipes included red pepper in them)
- 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
- ½ tsp mace
- 1 tsp ground mustard
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1 T allspice berry
- 1 T clove
- 1 T celery seed
- 1 T peppercorn
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 cups cider vinegar
- 2 T sea salt
Instructions
- Mix tomatoes, onions, garlic, and optional red pepper in an 8-quart stainless steel stockpot, bring to a boil, and then adjust to medium low. It will sputter quite a bit. Wear an apron and even shoes you don’t mind getting tomato splatters on, because it will happen. I am nearby the entire time and stir every few minutes with a ladle. Wear comfortable shoes and stream your favorite music, audiobook, podcast, or show because you’ll be on your feet for many hours to come.
- About 20-30 minutes in, puree with immersion blender in pot and then add the brown sugar, mace, and ground mustard.
- After the second 30 minute boil, run through a food mill in batches with the fine sieve attachment. You’ll lose some meat and seeds with this process — about 2 cups of pulp and seeds will be discarded. This is progress!
- Now add the sachet of spices and boil for another 45 minutes to an hour.
- Remove sachet from pot, allowing the liquid to drain from the sachet. Note: After the spice boil when it’s good and thickened, it’s optional to run through food mill one more time. It’s a texture preference — I don’t usually do this, but it will result in an even smoother ketchup, and yield slightly less; mine has a bit more texture than Heinz and we like it that way. Your choice!
- It’s time to boil a while more, but we are getting closer. (If you need to do this over two days, this would be a good time to stop and refrigerate until tomorrow.)
- Add vinegar and salt and boil for another 1-2 hours. I usually go somewhere between 90 minutes and 2 full hours, depending on how my ketchup is mounding.
- You know your ketchup is done when it remains mounded on a spoon. This is the universal key I’ve read on every site, including the National Center for Home Canning, to determine when the ketchup is cooked down and ready for canning. Very technical, and not subject to interpretation, eh?
- Prep the hot water bath, jars, lids, and utensils about 1 hour into final boil as instructed in my tomato canning post.
- Fill jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Use a bubbler to get any air pockets out and adjust fill as needed. Wipe rim clean and place lid on center of jar and then screw the ring on until it is tight to the touch, but don’t overtighten.
- Boil for 20 minutes in a hot water bath (1000-6000 ft elevation). Adjust for elevation as needed.
- Turn water off and let stand for 5 minutes.
- Remove jars and place on a clean towel. Let stand for 12-24 hours.
Notes
Our immersion blender is an indispensable kitchen utensil in our home. I recommend the KitchenAid brand. You can use your main blender for this but beware than blending hot liquids often causes the blender lid to blow off and it can be quite dangerous (just me?). It’s happened to me many times, hence, the investment in an immersion blender.
Get updated by email whenever there’s a new post
Comments
If you’re a subscriber, you can discuss this post in the forums
Leave a Reply