In all of my spare time, I made ketchup. I also neglected to take pictures, because my camera is still out of batteries and my webcam is hard to hold over the stove, especially when things are boiling. But I did it, I swear! I used
this recipe, from my favorite canning site.
When they said to use 25 lbs of tomatoes, I had no idea how much that meant. I knew that the enormous pile of tomatoes on the floor were ALL ripe, and there were more to be picked outside. I was also making bread, muffins, coffee cake, washing other veggies, etc., and had some pink fleshed crab apples to use. My time and resources were limited, so I decided that whatever amount I had next to me was close enough.
Here are the steps that I took to make ketchup, all based on the recipe at the link above, and their canning instructions. Canning safely is very important!
1. Put a medium sized pot of water on to boil, have a bowl of cold water (with ice if you have the luxury of a freezer) ready.
2. Throw some tomatoes in the boiling water -carefully- and wait about 30 seconds to a minute, or I just wait until one of the skins cracks.
3. Take tomatoes out and put in cold water.
4. Repeat. By the way, boiling tomatoes smell really funky.
5. Peel the skin off. It should come off very easily. Should. Cut out stem part on top with the tough part, and any bad spots. Squeeze out the seeds, trying not to get them all over yourself and the kitchen you may have just cleaned.
6. If you are still sane by the time you are done, put 3 cups of vinegar on to simmer. You will smell like pickles.
7. Put the tomatoes in a thick-bottomed pot. Add a medium sized chopped onion, a minced clove of garlic, 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 1 cup sugar or ratio of other sweetener, and 1/2 teaspoon dried mustard. Put on to simmer for 20-30 minutes, until they look squishy. This was actually all the salt that the recipe needed for my taste!
8. Measure vinegar again, it probably reduced at least a cup down, add more vinegar until you get back to 3 cups.
9. Put tomatoes through a food mill or like appliance, to get all the seeds out, onions, and other chewy bits.
10. After washing out the pot, add the tomatoes back in with the vinegar.
11. Stirring as often as you can remember, simmer until it cooks down to where you want it, or a little sooner. It will set thicker as it cools. This took me about the time it took to make dinner (half a chicken, roasted, with veggies), prep. and all. You could do this in a crock pot if you have one big enough, or probably the oven. Try not to burn it.
12. Remember to get your canner going with enough time to have the water boiling before the ketchup is ready. Ladle the ketchup into sanitized jars, and follow water bath instructions as apply to you. I had pint jars in a plain water bath, for 30 minutes.
13. When done, cool on a rack and let set until completely cool. To be safe, I set it for 24 hours. Label jars, especially with the date.
I ended up with 2 pints of ketchup, and a little left over that I stuck in the fridge. I know that's not much. But, it is SO good!!!! Absolutely worth it. It reminds me of the ketchup we would get in Russia. Better than anything in the store. You should try it. Really. And I'm not just saying it because I want you to sweat in the kitchen for an entire afternoon and end up smelling of boiled tomato skins and vinegar. I'm just saying that if you have more tomatoes than you know what to do with, ketchup is a good idea.
On another note, I have been experimenting with
box-pectin free jam making. 2 pints of blueberry and 2 pints of black-and-blueberry jam were successful without boxed pectin. I really want to branch out into other types of jams, but I was always told that I must always follow a recipe, or there would be dire results. There are so few recipes out there for the ideas that I have. I think that I will need to go through my old Shaker recipe books, and do some experimenting. There has to be a way to make it work without killing anyone. If there is enough sugar and enough acid, it should work. My goals for this week are blackberry-peach and plain peach jams. Maybe I'll find some batteries and post my results!
As you may have guessed, I have tomatoes. So many tomatoes. I dream that they are chasing me. I also have kale, carrots, beets, one or two bean that might grow bigger, summer squash, heirloom cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, kohlrabi, cabbage, potatoes, yellow onions, herbs, scallions, turnips, rutabaga, and I harvested my entire sugar pumpkin and spaghetti squash crop at once- most rotten where they grew or were full of squash bugs. The vines are all dying. Still, other veggies are doing very well and we have way too many. I have started selling a few at my friend's farm, earning enough money for gas to keep my car going.
And...I may have a job baking crackers at a local bakery! I have a phone interview tomorrow, and will write more if it works out =) There's more! Jon will be starting teaching woodworking to kids once a week! Things always look up if you have hope.
