Baby Tomato Ketchup

My husband grew up like Beaver Cleaver.  His parents stayed married, his father was a Baptist minister and his mom was like June Cleaver.  She kept the home, was active in the women's auxiliary and by all accounts was the best cook south of the Mason-Dixon line.  You could say that I have big pots to fill.  Sadly she isn't around to teach me her recipes. I've tried to replicate his favourite meals from childhood with limited success.  For years he's talked about Mom's Homemade Ketchup.  She used it in everything so every recipe has this unobtainable item at it's core.

We've been married 9 years (this Saturday!) and at every opportunity I've asked his family if anyone has the recipe for the famous ketchup.  No one has it.  When she passed away the lady's church group put together a book of her recipes but they only included the recipes in her recipe box.  Not the ones that were in her head because she made them all the time.  So 9 years later I'm just going to throw caution to the wind and try making any homemade ketchup.  At least I'll have a base so he can tell me more of this or less of that.  Here is my attempt at homemade ketchup.  Since it's not mom's recipe I shall call it "Baby Tomato Ketchup"  If you've seen Pulp Fiction you remember Uma Thurman's character telling the old joke, "three tomatoes are walkin' down the street.  Papa tomato, mama tomato and baby tomato.  Baby tomato starts lagging behind and papa tomato get really angry; goes and and squishes him; says 'catch up'. "  There is inspiration everywhere!

The Ball Blue Book provided me with the recipe for Tomato Ketchup. 

4 quarts chapped, peeled, cored tomatoes (about 24 large)
1 cup chopped onion (about 1 medium)

1/2 cup chopped sweet red capsicum/pepper (about 1/2 medium)

1 1/2 tsp celery seed

1 tsp whole allspice

1 tsp mustard seed

1 stick cinnamon

1 cup sugar

1 Tbsp salt

1 Tbsp paprika

1 1/2 cup vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)

I have never peeled and cored tomatoes before so I went on YouTube to learn how.  It turns out to be quite easy.  I think I'll be using fresh tomatoes a lot more.  

Here are some of my beautiful love apples. They will be cored and blanched. 

Coring is quite easy just cut a little cone around the stem area on each tomato.  It should just pop out if you get it right.  If you miss some material don't worry you can clean it up later when you quarter the tomato and remove the seeds. 

If you cut a little "x" in the bottom of each tomato the skins will be easier to peel off.  After they have been prepared drop them in a pot of rapidly boiling water for 5 to 30 seconds.  You'll know it's time to remove them when the skins start to peel.  Then you put them in a container of cold water.  This stops the cooking process and cools them for handling. 

The tomatoes will look like this after the bath.  The skin just pulls right off.

 Once the skins are removed you quarter the tomatoes and remove the seeds and the white part of the flesh.  It was hard to get a good photo because my hands were covered in tomato juice but the one on the right here has the unwanted material removed.  I used a paring knife to slice off the centers and then my thumb to remove the membrane and seeds. Into the pot they go.

I added my sweet red capsicum/pepper and onion to the pot and cooked it until the tomatoes were tender. 

This is my Christmas present that I opened early so I could puree the mixture.  I love my new food processer!  I cooked the pureed mix until it had reduced by half and was nice and thick.  

The whole spices went into a spice bag (which is just a muslin drawstring bag).  The sugar, vinegar, salt and paprika go right into the mix.  Then you let it simmer until it's thick.  It needs to be stirred often so it doesn't stick. Once it's cooked the spice bag comes out and the sauce gets put into hot jars and water bathed for 10 minutes. 

I ended up with about 4 1/2 pints.  I water bathed 3 1/2 pints for storage and then I put the rest in these flip top jars that will go right into the fridge for immediate use.  

My Baby Tomato Ketchup is sweet and tangy.  I am VERY pleased with the result and so is my hubby.  We will start testing it out and see if any changes are needed in the future. 

Happy 9th Anniversary to the best husband in the whole world! 

I love you more than ever.