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The Ultimate Homemade Ketchup

Howard Land By Howard Land

Today’s recipe is about a sauce that we all know pretty well. That’s right, you are quite smart, and you read the title, so you already know that we are talking about the marvelous and super delicious Ketchup.
Recipes for ketchup are usually cursed, as everybody who tries to make this sauce from scratch tends to compare the resulting ketchup with Heinz ketchup, which is the standard one we all know and seem to settle for.

However, what we tried to achieve here is a sauce that is not only healthier than any of the store-bought counterparts, but it also sure to taste as delicious as any other ketchup you like to enjoy. We’re sure you’ll be surprised by the result of this recipe.

How To Make Homemade Tomato Ketchup:

Quite surprisingly, the first ingredients we are going to be dealing with are tomatoes.

Add the tinned and fresh tomatoes to the blender’s jug, and process them at medium speed until properly combined.

If you have spot-on and perfectly ripe fresh tomatoes, you are free to use only them and skip the tinned tomatoes altogether, or you can use only tinned tomatoes and skip the fresh ones, your choice!

As you can imagine, using fresh or tinned will make quite a big difference in the final ketchup.

We like to use both to obtain a more balanced final flavour.

Now strain the tomato juice to remove all the tomato seeds and skins, which you don’t want in your final sauce.

We are using a super bag, as usual, but feel free to use a nut-milk bag, or simply a fine mesh strainer for this task.

Now place all the ingredients into your favourite pan, apart from the vinegar, the salt, and the gelling agent, which will be needed at the end of the cooking process. We like to remove the head from the clove, as it is excessively powerful and will end up making the final ketchup taste of clove only.

Add the previously prepared tomato juice to the pan and stir well to combine the ingredients. Now, turn on the heat on high and bring the sauce to a boil.

As soon as the sauce starts boiling, lower the heat to the minimum, and start counting the cooking time. There is no specific cooking time for this recipe, as it depends upon how watery your tomatoes are.
However, Ketchup is generally ready in 40 to 60 minutes. Cook the sauce for 10 minutes on the lowest heat, so that the excess water evaporates.

Once the first 10 minutes are elapsed, stir the sauce well and cook it for another 10 minutes on the lowest heat, and so on. There is nothing complicated here, set a timer every 10 minutes so that you don’t forget the sauce on the stove.

Unless, of course, you are trying to prepare burned concentrated tomatoes instead of ketchup, and if that’s the case, then you’re doing great by leaving the ketchup on the stove for a few hours without checking on it.

Although there is a slight chance, it will explode all over the kitchen. So we’d stick to our method.

Once you have repeated this process for 4 or 5 times, 40 to 50 minutes of total cooking time, you will end up with something like this: a thick and very aromatic tomato sauce.

Now add the gelling agent mixed with a touch of water, the vinegar, the salt, if desired, and stir well to combine.

At this point, I also remember to remove the clove from the pan.

Bring the sauce back to a simmer over medium heat, lower the heat to the minimum and cook for the last 10 minutes to complete the sauce.

As you probably already know, thick tomato sauce tends to bubble violently, so to avoid burning yourself and turning the kitchen into a war zone, make sure to use a splatter guard if you feel it is needed. Now let the sauce cool down completely before blending it using your preferred piece of equipment.

In this case, we felt that a stick blender works best, but you can also use a regular blender if you so desire. And here you have Miriam playing with our favourite ketchup.

Mum always said to not play with food, but she never said anything about decorating with it! We strongly recommend you to give this recipe a go and let us know if you liked it.

We are sure you will be amazed by the final result!

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My name is Land, and I am a lazy chef, I like to make easy meals that don't take usually more than 30 minutes or less. I am so excited to give the best and fast recipes from around the world to help you. Follow along on this blog where I share most of my recipes.
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