Ketchup - From Fresh Garden Tomatoes

• 6 lbs tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup onion, chopped
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 1/2 teaspoon whole allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 whole cloves

1. Depending on size, halve or quarter your tomatoes. Sauce tomatoes (Roma) are ideal, but any will work. I used a combo of Roma, Beefsteak, and (mostly) Cherry.
2. OPTIONAL: Smoke a tray's worth of the tomatoes. I cold smoked mine for a few hours over hickory. It gave it a subtle but delicious smoke flavor. Again, this is totally optional.
3. Add the tomatoes, salt, garlic, sugar, and onions to a pot and boil for 30 minutes.
4. Cool the mixture until you can send it safely through your food mill. I used the mixer attachment and it worked beautifully. If you don't have a food mill, you can peel and squeeze the tomatoes using the boiling water / ice bath method.
5. Return the now de-seeded and de-skinned tomato sauce to the pot and back onto the stove.
6. Continue to boil the sauce to reduce and thicken.
7. Meanwhile, in another non-reactive pot; heat the apple cider vinegar with all the remaining spice additions. Heat until the spices have infused into the vinegar.
8. Using a fine strainer to leave behind the whole spices, pour the vinegar into the tomato mix. If you don't have a strainer or tea-ball, you can wrap the spices in a cheesecloth satchel.
9. Continue to reduce until you reach the desired ketchup texture. This can take 4-6 hours. I've heard of people using a crock pot for this process.
10. Follow standard canning procedure if you want a shelf-stable product. Otherwise, cool and keep in the fridge.

tomatoes, salt, garlic, sugar, onion, apple cider vinegar, mustard seeds, black peppercorns, whole allspice, celery, red pepper, bay leaf, cloves

Taken from www.food.com/recipe/ketchup-from-fresh-garden-tomatoes-518033 (may not work)