Move Over, Heinz.

There's a new ketchup in town.

To add to my condiment repertoire, I broke out my frozen supply of summer-grown tomatoes and made a batch of less sweet and much more tomato-y ketchup. Did you know that there are fruit ketchups out there? I came across one for mango ketchup...if only I had a supply of frozen mangoes in my freezer. Ahh, well. Maybe next time. (Actually, I want to try making beer mustard next. Mmmm. Mustard.)

You, too, can try making your own ketchup. It is pretty darn easy, but it does NOT taste like Heinz. That stuff is loaded with a ton of salt, and high fructose corn syrup, and lots of sugar. Ummm, that isn't exactly what I want to dip my fries in, know what I mean? My version tastes like tomato. With extra tangy goodness. No faux-corn-based-materials involved.

This is the version I tried, modified slightly from a recipe in Small Batch Preserving, a simply wonderful canning book. (Their version called for a red bell pepper, whirled in the mix of tomato and onion. I had no peppers, as it is mid-Winter and all my frozen stash have been long since consumed a la fajita.)

Homemade Tomato Ketchup

You will need about 4 pounds of peeled plum tomatoes (very important, otherwise it is not going to taste good. MUST be plum tomatoes, folks); 1/2 cup chopped onion; 1/4 cup sugar; 2/3 cup cider vinegar; 1/2 tsp. canning salt; 1 tsp each whole peppercorns, cloves, allspice berries; 1 bay leaf; 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half. Place the tomatoes and onion in the food processor and whirl until smooth. Put in a nice big enamelled pot and bring to a boil. Add vinegar, sugar and salt, stir well and bring back to a boil. Tie the allspice, peppercorns, cloves, bay leaf and cinnamon stick pieces into a square of muslin or tuck into a tea ball. Plonk into the tomato mixture. Reduce heat and let it slow boil until very thick (about 2 hours). You could try the overnight slow cooker method with this, where you leave the lid cracked and the system on low all night long. But I wanted it done, so I cooked it on the stove. I also whirled it a bit at the end with my stick blender, because I like my ketchup smoooooooth, baby. When it is nice and thick and ketchup-y textured, ladle into hot half-pint jars, top with a hot lid, tighten the ol' band-ito, and process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes. Makes about three half-pint jars of ketchup goodness.

Somebody pass me some fries.