My Homemade Ketchup
The crushed tomatoes are perfect. The diced tomatoes have seeds, so I was glad I only was using one can of those.
The total amount of tomatoes I used was equal to 1 gallon, and I used 2.5 cups of vinegar. I ended up with 8 pints!
A Bit About Adjusting Recipes
I use a slightly adapted recipe from an old Ball Canning version. Here is their current tested and approved recipe.
For safety reasons, it is important to follow canning recipes closely. However, I know how to do the math and look at one safe recipe and its ingredients and adjust another recipe accordingly to suit our tastes – all while making sure it’s still safe. Â I don’t do it often – but in the case of how I make my ketchup – I do it slightly.
The other ingredients I use in my ketchup include sugar, diced onion, celery seed, mustard seed, kosher salt, white pepper, paprika, garlic powder, and onion powder. It is a perfectly safe recipe with plenty of vinegar to the ratio of tomatoes, not to mention the canned tomatoes from the store already have citric acid in them.
Anyway – I brought the tomatoes, onion, and spices to a boil for about 30 minutes, then I hit it with my Cuisinart Immersion Blender to grind all of the onion pieces up and blend it.
Then, I added the vinegar and cooked it on a low simmer for about an hour. Â Last time I made ketchup, it didn’t get thick enough. This time, I wanted to make sure and cook it long enough for it to thicken properly.
Once it was thick and I had my jars sterilized and my hot water bath ready to go, I filled eight 1-pint jars and put them in the boiling water bath for 15 minutes.