You guys  might remember my huge canned tomato purchase.  When I bought all those tomatoes this is what I had in mind.  I was down to my last bottle of ketchup and knew I wanted to start making it from scratch to control the amount of sugar.  I have to say it’s very easy to make your own.  And even though I didn’t get crazy with my seasoning, you can flavor it any way you want and start with a blank palette.

These are the ingredients:

Canned tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, brown sugar, onion, garlic powder, cinnamon, onion powder, cloves, and nutmeg.

First of all, I had some grape tomatoes starting to shrivel up in the fridge I wanted to use so I included those.  I think you can use any type of brown sugar you have on hand.  You could even use honey, agave nectar, truvia, stevia, sucanat, or whatever sweetener you choose.  If you are a splenda user, you can use that, too.  I am trying to abstain from splenda from now on myself.

A little tip I use in the kitchen, when I saute veggies I add one tsp of fat and water to soften the vegetables.  This way, I don’t use much fat, the veggies get soft and caramelize and the water helps the little bit of oil spread and cover everything to keep it from sticking too badly.

The first thing I did was saute my onions and grape tomatoes.  I cooked them until all the tomatoes had burst and the onions were soft and clear and starting to caramelize.

Then I added all of the canned tomatoes and juice and cooked until the pot come to a small boil.  While this was happening, I got out a big bowl, my fine mesh strainer, and my blender for the fun to come.

If there was a part to making ketchup that was negative it would have to be this:  tomatoes stain everything, including immersion blenders!  I used my now pink immersion blender to puree all the tomatoes and onions.  Word to the wise, make sure you use your immersion blender appropriately and don’t lose attention for a second.  Otherwise your kitchen will have ketchup splatter all over it.  Like this:

I was cleaning tomatoes off the stove, the wall behind the stove, the cabinets above the stove, and my utensils and containers sitting around on the counter, too.  I’m not even going to show you a picture of the shirt I had on!

After everything is pureed nicely, I decided to still run everything through the blender just to make sure.  Because not only did my immersion blender get stained, it got warped as well.  Don’t ask…..

Once blended, I passed the mixture through my trusty strainer I use for gazpacho, tomato juice and homemade tomato soup.  This step is necessary for the ketchup to have the right end consistency.  I poured the strained tomato mixture back into the pot and started to add the seasonings.  I didn’t measure anything.  Don’t let that scare you if you aren’t as comfortable experimenting in the kitchen or as comfortable with your culinary skills as I am.  It’s really easy.  You just do it to your taste.  You add vinegar, approximately 1/4 cup for the sized batch I made.  Then add sugar.  I added 1/2 cup brown sugar to start with.  As I added other seasonings and cooked the mixture down to reduce I would add things along as my tongue seen fit, including more sugar!  I ended up using 3/4 cup of brown sugar for this batch.  For personal taste likes and health reasons I added a touch or turmeric.  I ground fresh cinnamon and cloves in my spice blender, approximately 1/2 tsp each.  And I used my microplane grater to shave some nutmeg in, maybe 1/8 tsp.  Last thing I added was 1 tsp each of garlic powder and onion powder.

If I had a word of advice, I would say save the garlic powder til the end and TASTE!  I ended up putting too much garlic powder but it still tastes good.  Start with  1/4 tsp of garlic powder.  Also, remember I said you can put whatever flavors in it you like?  This would be a great time to add chili flakes or anything else you like.

I will definitely continue making batches of ketchup and tweak the recipe as I go.  You should know you can use this ketchup to can with your regular vegetables if you put up food in jars.  I made a small batch so it will just go in the fridge for now.  And, be prepared for the smell.  Your house will smell like hot ketchup for the day.

Anyone have flavors, ingredients or recipes for your favorite homemade ketchup?