Tomato Ketchup

----- Now You're Cooking! v4.20 [Meal-Master Export Format]

Title: Tomato Ketchup
Categories: relishes
Yield: 4 servings

10 lb tomato; dead-ripe
1 bell pepper, red; seeded &
-chopped
4 lg onion; chopped
1 1/2 c vinegar, cider
2 garlic clove; crushed
1 ts peppercorns
1 ts allspice, whole
1 ts cloves, whole
5 cinnamon sticks
1 ts celery seed
1/2 ts mustard, dry
1/4 ts cayenne
4 tb sugar, brown; packed firm
3 tb sugar, granulated
1 ts salt

Cut tomatoes in quarters and puree them in food processor along with bell
pepper. Strain puree through a coarse sieve to remove skins and seeds. (You
can dump the puree into a colander and work it through with your hands
until there is nothing left in the colander but a dryish pulp of skins and
seeds.) Now puree onions, combine with tomato and pepper puree, and pour
into a large stainless steel or enameled kettle. Cook and stir
occasionally over low heat until it is reduced by about a third and is
considerably thicker.

Meanwhile put garlic, peppercorns, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, and celery
seed into the vinegar in a small pot and simmer covered for 1/2 hour to
steep spices in the vinegar. Pour about half the spiced vinegar through a
tea strainer into the thickened tomato mixture. Stir. Also add sugar,
mustard, cayenne, and salt at this point.

Here is where the tasting comes in. You can adjust any of these
ingredients to suit you. You can add more spiced vinegar. Or a little
plain vinegar. More or less sugar, mustard, cayenne. Just sort of tinker
with it. Cook it some more, stirring often, until it looks like catsup
should look. Taste and adjust again. You may notice that it looks slightly
curdled. Not to worry. Hit it a lick in the food processor. Smooths right
out. Pour into sterile jars leaving 1/8" of head space. Process in a
boiling water bath 15 minutes.

-- The Only Texas Cookbook
Linda West Eckhardt

-----