Tangy Homemade Tomato Ketchup

 I'm not going to pretend this didn't start out as something else. I really had my heart set on making Tomato Jam. I had a few recipes to work from, and what I had in mind was a slightly sweet, ginger-y, chunky jam that would be just as delicious on a slice of buttered toast at sunrise as it would be on a juicy grilled burger at sunset.

I had a large assortment of incredibly tasty organic tomatoes to work with -a generous gift from friends in my hometown of Wenatchee, Washington - so I was starting with the right stuff.

I chopped up a knob of fresh ginger...

...and about 8 pounds of cored tomatoes, with the skins on and the seeds intact. I would end up regretting not peeling & seeding the tomatoes first...

 

...but I did a little research in advance, and nearly every one of the dozen or so recipes I looked at told me to just chop the tomatoes. I believe only 2 of the recipes said to peel & seed the tomatoes before chopping.

I should have listened to my gut instincts on this one. You see, most of the time I prefer to gut my tomatoes - especially for salads - so why would this time be any different?

But let's keep moving, shall we?

Next I added some Braggs Organic Apple Cider Vinegar...

...along with some citrus juice and a few other spices, plus salt & sugar, and brought the mixture to a boil.

Then I reduced the heat and simmered my tomato jam for a little over an hour, using the immersion blender for a few seconds at the halfway point.

The taste? Exactly what I wanted.

A complex blend of sweet and savory with pure "ripe tomato" flavor.

But I had 2 problems:

 1.)  The skins were curled up, tough, pointy and almost sharp. Ick.

2.) The seeds? Kind of bitter when I bit into them. Double ick.

 

Thankfully I have a food mill and I know how to use it!

I dumped my unacceptable tomato jam into the food mill and started cranking away.

A few minutes later, I was well on my way to a rather big, rather righteous batch of Tangy Homemade Tomato Ketchup. In no time at all I had reduced the tomato jam into two very different things: smooth ketchup and chunky pulp (the skins & seeds).

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Here's what I ended up with:

On the left, in a big plastic measuring cup is ~60 ounces of ketchup

On the right, in a small glass measuring cup is ~ 1 cup of pulp

I poured the nearly-completed ketchup back into a heavy-bottomed pan, heated it up, and tasted it...adding more sea salt.

And then I declared it perfect. 

Next I ladled the ketchup into warm jars...

...wiped the jar rims, then placed lids & screw bands on them, and processed them for 15 minutes in a boiling water bath.

I still have my heart set on a batch of well-crafted tomato jam, and luckily I have more tomatoes left so I can give "Tomato Jam" another try, after blanching, peeling and seeding them first, of course.

But I think before I do any of that I need to share a few cherry tomatoes with Shu Mai, my sweet little ol' tomato-lovin' Pug!

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Comments

[Lyn H.]

Did the tomatoes come from your garden? Was that why you used a variety? I really want to do an Italian sauce/bbq sauce/hot sauce medley with tomatoes but my CSA farm has had a paste tomato blight and is having trouble making orders. Do you think that using slicing tomatoes was what made it too pulpy? Sorry for the annoying questions but I'm trying to decide if I want invest in a half bushel of slicing tomatoes to make my products.

Thanks!

[Jann]

What a day you had making this! Next summer I am going to can more tomatoes~and make some ketchup,too!

[Brook Hurst Stephens]

Lyn ~

I WISH the tomatoes had come from my garden. It's been such a cool summer in Seattle that my tomatoes are just getting ripe. I lost the first round I planted to the unseasonably cold spring. The tomatoes were a gift from friends who live in the center of Washington state, which is a completely different climate. They were an assortment of Heirlooms, Romas, and slicing tomatoes and I just used a combination. Looking back, I probably would have just used Romas or San Marzanos.

As for the jam, the pulp was really delicious, it was the skins and seeds that were the problem, so in the future I think I'll peel and seed them no matter what they are. I don't like the seeds in my salads, salsa, or sauces either, so I guess it makes sense I wouldn't like them in my Tomato Jam.

Your questions are NOT annoying at all. I learn from asking a lot of questions. In this case I learned it the hard way...by having a flop. The ketchup turned out so delicious that I guess it was not really such a flop after all. Just a brief disappointment; I got over it when I dunked the roasted potato wedge into my Homemade Ketchup!

Thanks for your comment, and for reading my blog. Now I'm curious about whether or not you're going to get those slicing tomatoes....

[Brook Hurst Stephens]

Hi Jan.

Yes, it was a big day. Actually, it was two days. I let the jam sit in a big bowl in the fridge overnight while I thought about what to do with it. I love ketchup, and love making ketchup, so it was a pretty natural transition for me to make.

I am happy to hear you're going to can more tomatoes next year. I did a National Can-It-Forward Day demo at Pike Place Market for Ball Canning last month...it was really fun to show people how easy it can be, and the reward of having a pantry full of versatile canned tomatoes is huge!

Please make ketchup next year. On my agenda this week are beets. (The same friends who brought me the tomatoes also brought me corn, bell peppers, eggplant, and beets. I'll be blogging about of these things in the next week or two!) Anyway...I am going to make Pickled Beets with half of them....and with the other half? Beet Ketchup!!! Wish me luck :)