Preservative Free! Homemade Ketchup
- 2 1/2 kg Ripe tomatoes
- 40 grams Sugar
- 10 grams Salt
- 2 Bay leaves
- 3 Whole cloves
- 1/2 tsp Dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp Dried ground sage
- 1 dash Pepper
- Take the calyxes off the tomatoes and wash them well.
- Chop up roughly and put into a blender.
- Strain the blended tomatoes from Step 1 into a large bowl to remove all the seeds and skins.
- Leave the strained tomatoes alone for 15 to 30 minutes.
- It will gradually separate into the red part and the liquid.
- We'll use 1 to 1.5 kg of the red part for the ketchup.
- Don't throw away the liquid!
- Put the red tomato part from Step 4 into a deep stainless steel pot with heavy sides (a pot that doesn't burn easily), and simmer over medium heat.
- It will foam up, so mix so that it does not boil over.
- When the bubbles have disappeared and the mixture is boiling, turn the heat down to low-medium and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes.
- Stir occasionally!
- Add the ingredients to the pot, and keep simmering while stirring occasionally so that it doesn't burn.
- The liquid may splatter so be careful!
- When the volume of the liquid has reduced by half, add the ingredients and keep simmering while stirring occasionally (if you have small children, you can leave out the spices).
- When the mixture in the pot is no longer liquid, turn off the heat (it should have reduced to about 1/3rd of its original volume).
- Leave to cool down a little.
- If you prefer the ketchup to be looser, turn the heat off while there's still a little liquid left.
- Taste the ketchup around Steps 8 and 9, and add a little sugar if it's not sweet enough to your taste.
- When the Step 9 ketchup has cooled down, strain it to remove the bay leaves and cloves.
- After it has been strained, process the ketchup in a blender to make the texture really smooth.
- Pack into a heat-sterilized jar or bottle and it's done!
- It lasts for 2 weeks or so in the refrigerator.
- Use it in various recipes, just like storebought ketchup (for omurice, tamagoyaki, croquettes etc. )
- If you strain the leftover tomato liquid through a coffee filter, you will get clear liquid that looks like lemon water.
- It takes 1/2 to 1 whole day to strain the liquid, so do it in the refrigerator.
- You can add honey to the strained liquid to make tomato juice!
- Or you can turn it into jelly!
- When making ketchup, you can use all the tomato puree without separating the red solid parts from the liquid!
- I separate it since I make jelly with the liquid.
tomatoes, sugar, salt, bay leaves, cloves, thyme, ground sage, pepper
Taken from cookpad.com/us/recipes/153144-preservative-free-homemade-ketchup (may not work)