This homemade ketchup is easy enough to throw together and comes out tasting just like store bought. Free of chemicals or preservatives, this is the perfect healthy alternative to always have on hand. Making this recipe in bulk is a great way to add to your food storage, or share with friends.
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Why Homemade Ketchup?
One thing about me is that I’m very ambitious! I’m an ‘all in’ or ‘not at all’ type of person. It’s a blessing and a curse, really. So when we decided to move to the country and then just two months later packed up our entire lives, sold our previous house and moved to our homestead (exactly 3 weeks postpartum) I thought, “I should also buy 160 pounds of tomatoes that a friend is selling!”. Did I even know where my canning supplies were after the move? Nope. After not having my garden during peak harvest, I was just excited to get my hands on some produce!
My husband graciously drove to get said tomatoes and unloaded them into our kitchen for me. Then I saw just how many tomatoes that equated to. So I spent a few days making salsa, pasta sauce, diced tomatoes.. and then the canned goods spent a couple days taking up every inch in the refrigerator while I waited for a part for my pressure canner to come in that got lost in the move. And I still had an abundance of tomatoes. Into the deep freeze they went until just a few weeks ago when I regained my gumption and was able to google “what to do with a ton of tomatoes”. Make a years’ supply of ketchup, of course! I was a little hesitant but this recipe turned out very similar to store bought, even my kids think so. I’ll take that as a win.
Would I buy that many tomatoes again? No way! Simply because next year I’ll be growing my own! But for now my husband is very happy to have our deep freezer back, and I’m very happy to see some stocked canning shelves.
Ingredients
Homemade ketchup is simple enough to make. You will need a few spices though. I luckily had all of these on hand, but plan ahead and be sure you have all of these before you start making it.
You’ll need a large pot. I used the same pot for cooking the ketchup and water bath canning at the end. You’ll also need pint sized mason jars (this filled about 16 of them for me), measuring cups and spoons, and an immersion blender.
For the ingredients I used skinned tomatoes (a variety of sauce/paste tomatoes, but I also threw in some sweet yellow and orange ones), white vinegar, white and brown sugar, salt, onion powder, cayenne powder, allspice, ground cloves, ground cinnamon, and pre canned tomato paste (6 oz cans). Fresh and whole cinnamon and cloves would have been great to simmer in this, but I just used ground because it’s what I had in the cupboard.
How to Make
Having to freeze all those tomatoes was just about the best thing that could have happened because I then discovered just how easy it is to remove tomato skins once defrosted. No more boiling water and ice baths- Hallelujah! So if you’re using frozen like me, simple throw those bad boys in the sink and let them defrost. Then go ahead and discard the skins and squeeze the tomatoes to get the extra liquid out of there. Add the tomatoes to your pot.
I brought my tomatoes to warm using a medium heat before adding all my spices and vinegar. Once they was added I used an immersion blender to blend it all together right in the pot, and let it simmer for a few house. Don’t worry, it starts off pretty thin but will thicken after simmering.
After it had cooked down some I added in my cans of tomato paste and used the immersion blender again to blend it all together. This made for a nice ketchup like consistency that is similar to store bought. Finally, I let it cool and added it to my mason jars.
How to Store
You can store an open jar of this homemade ketchup in the refrigerator, but for long term storage my solution is canning. I used the water bath method for 15 minutes. You could freeze as well, but make sure you’re using a freezer safe container. I’ve had my fair share of mason jars burst in the freezer- not fun!
Let me know if you try making this recipe, and what you think! I love that I know the exact ingredients and can feel good about letting my kids drown their actual food in it.
Homemade Ketchup
Equipment
- 1 large pot I used the same one for simmering and water bath canning
- 1 stirring spoon
- 16 pint sized mason jars
- measuring cups and spoons
- immersion blender
Ingredients
- 20-25 lbs Tomatoes I freeze these first and then defrost- it makes it super easy to take the skins off and gets rid of a lot of excess liquid.
- 4 Cups White vinegar
- 1 Cup White sugar
- 1 Cup Brown sugar
- 3 Tbsp Salt
- 1 Tbsp Onion powder
- 1/2 Tsp Cayenne
- 1/2 Tsp Allspice
- 1/2 Tsp Ground cloves
- 1/2 Tsp Ground cinnamon
- 8 Cans Tomato paste 6 oz cans
Instructions
- Freeze tomatoes ahead of time to make skinning a lot easier. Once defrosted, remove the skins and drain the excess liquid.
- Add tomatoes to a pot and bring to warm using a medium heat.
- Add spices and vinegar.
- Use immersion blender to blend until smooth.
- Let simmer on the stove at a medium heat for approximately 3 hours, or until sauce cooks down and becomes thicker.
- Add cans of tomato paste.
- Use immersion blender to blend again until smooth.
- Remove from heat and let cool before placing into jars.
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