Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Ketchup

Patience. The key ingredient to making ketchup is patience. Other than that, it is a breeze to make. The recipe can be found in Curtis Stone's book What's for Dinner, or here.  You may note that the recipe is part of a meat loaf and mashed potatoes meal, but with the temperatures hitting triple digits, I'm not about to turn on the oven or make a heavy meal. We'll just have to use the ketchup on grilled hamburgers or hot dogs. 

Frankly, I was a bit skeptical about the value of making home-made ketchup. Perfectly fine brands of ketchup are available for purchase at reasonable prices, so is it worth it to make your own?   
At first, I was doubtful, but a quick glance at the ingredient list convinced me that if I didn't like the result as ketchup, it would make a terrific base for barbecue sauce, so I had nothing to lose. 

The main ingredient is fresh tomatoes. They are cut into quarters and pureed in a blender. No need to peel or seed them. Saute minced onions, mix in the readily available ingredients, bring to a boil, then simmer.  Next, the waiting. Except for the occasional stirring, you wait...and wait...and wait. 

The only deviation I made from the instructions was to use an immersion mixer at the end to get a smoother texture. 

The finished result is very tasty, but I won't be using it in place of ketchup. Maybe I'm a creature of habit and too used to Heinz. As I mentioned before, it seemed like a good base for a great barbecue sauce and it would be a wonderful sauce for the meatloaf. As a ketchup, it was too sweet for my tastes and it might have benefited from even more simmering to thicken it up a bit.  


It's potluck week over at I Heart Cooking Clubs. This means that member bloggers will be posting their tasty recipes from Curtis Stone and other chefs featured at IHCC. Check it out. 


7 comments:

  1. I've never made ketchup but you have piqued my interest. Certainly I prefer homemade everything to store bought.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with you: there is nothing to lose. You gain by using the freshest ingredients and put in whatever ingredients you prefer. I am all in flavor of homemade anything.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am not a huge ketchup fan in general but I do like homemade ketchup much more than store bought--it just tastes better and fresher and I like controlling what goes in it. I love to stir curry powder in for extra flavor and kick. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fun! I've always wanted to make my own ketchup and I have no idea what I'm waiting for. I'm not a huge ketchup user, but I think this would be a great base for barbecue and other things. Thanks for sharing:)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love to make ketchup, you always know about the ingredients. And I love to make small portions, also from gooseberries or red currants. Canned it lasts very long

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'm not much of a ketchup user either but I'm tempted to try this recipe. It looks so easy and it sounds like it might be right with just a little less sugar.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Interesting. Homemade ketchup. I will have to try it.

    ReplyDelete