All joking aside, I did make my own ketchup. Hours of toiling over a simmering pot to make a condiment so abundant and commonplace I could go to McDonald's and grab a handful of packets for free. So, was it worth it? You bet it was!
I never really thought that much about ketchup, it was just always there when I needed a dip for my fries. A couple months ago, I wrote about my tomatoes in facebook and Jeremy commented about how he used to eat homemade ketchup. He found a recipe for me to use, and I was all set!
I had forgotten about my desire to make ketchup until about a week ago, and I decided it was time to give it a try. The recipe Jeremy gave me made a thinner ketchup than what is commercially available, so I altered it a bit to get the result I was looking for. I really wanted to make a ketchup that looked like the leading brands, mainly because that is what I am used to.
I started with five pounds of tomatoes and pureed them in my food processor. I then strained them to remove the seeds and skin. I then pureed an onion and added it to the strained tomatoes and simmered the mixture on the stove. Once the mixture reduced to about half, I added some vinegar and spices, and continued to reduce the mixture until it looked like ketchup. I put the ketchup in a jar, then placed it in the refrigerator to cool. It was really quite easy, though time consuming.
I decided to first try my ketchup with french fries. To my delight, it looks and tastes just like ketchup. It has a more pronounced tomato flavor, and is really quite delicious.
