Tomato Ketchup

 

Various varieties of Tomato Ketchup have been around since the first one was published in a cook-book by James Mease in 1812 more than 200 years ago. American cooks later started adding sugar to ketchup in the early 20th century. It was the F&J Heinz company that started selling ketchup in 1876 and made it the household item it is today by the early 1900s.

Since Sodium Benzoate was banned in 1906 for use as a preservative, the current version of ketchup using sugar & vinegar as natural preservatives was developed. Like every year, I sowed hybrid tomato seeds in my kitchen garden, and I maintain 20 plants which yield up to 5kg per plant easily. Since the past 3 years, to preserve these high-quality organic home-grown tomatoes, I started making ketchup so that it may be stored for up to 6 months easily.

Mind you, this recipe is lengthy, easy to get wrong and tedious, so not for the faint of heart. This recipe also uses onions & garlic, but they are optional.

 Prep Time:

20-30 mins

Cook Time:

1-3 hours

Ingredients:

1. Tomatoes - 1 kg (should be fully ripe and red)
2. Onions - 100gm (Optional)
3. Garlic - 5 cloves (Optional)
4. Cinnamon - 1 inch Stick
5. Cloves - 2 to 3
6. Star Anise - 2
7. Fennel Seeds - 1 Tablespoon
8. Black Pepper - 5-10 Pepper Corns
9. Red Chilies - 5 small
10. Sugar -1 Cup (250gm)
11. Vinegar - 1.25 Cup (300ml)
12. Salt to taste

Procedure:

• First, we shall clean the tomatoes by washing and then cut off their stems.
• Then we roughly chop the tomatoes & onions & add them along with the garlic & all the spices to a pressure cooker.
• Pressure-cook till at least 3-4 whistles.
• Strain the boiled items in a colander and wait till it has completely cooled.
• Remove the whole pieces of star anise & cinnamon and discard them.

• Transfer the items to a grinder.
• Grind to a paste.
• Please note that the tomato skins & seeds will not get ground easily and have to be sieved out in the next step.

• Transfer the ground paste to a fine sieve. The sieve should a little bit broader than the one you use to strain tea.
• Sieve the paste into a stainless steel kadhai or deep nonstick fry pan.

• Now add 1 cup/250gm sugar & 300 ml vinegar to the mixture start cooking on low flame.
• Mind you that the mixture contains mostly water at this point and vinegar is also approx. 90% water.
• We have to boil it to a point that the final mixture contains 25-30% tomato paste & 70-75% sugar & vinegar syrup.
• Add salt to taste.
• You can also strain the tomato paste in a cloth first for an hour and add the sugar & vinegar syrup to reduce cooking time on flame.
• The more you cook, the redder & thicker your tomato ketchup becomes.
• To check if it is done, take a spoonful of it & hold the spoon vertically. No water should leave the paste as ideally there should be none. 
• Undercooking will reduce the shelf life. Properly cooked, thick ketchup will last up to 4 months without refrigeration and 6-9 months when stores below 4 degrees Celsius.

• Final ketchup should like the above picture.
• If you do not want the tine black particles, remove every single piece of black pepper before grinding.

• If you want extra creamy & thick ketchup, recommend adding half a teaspoon of INS 415 thickener & emulsifier (Xanthan Gum) while you are in the last leg of cooking. It is easily available on amazon. 
• But if you a completely chemical free ketchup, then the thicker is not required, just cook more till you get the required consistency.