Ever since last year, I've had a hankering to make ketchup. My obstacles kept me from it. I don't have a food mill and I don't grow enough tomatoes to make 24 pounds of tomatoes at once, so no ketchup. Today, things changed. My girlfriend noticed an amazing price on tomatoes at the store and I found a blender ketchup recipe from the National Center for Home Food Preservation and we stocked up and set out to make ketchup.
We waited until we got the children to bed like we always do with anything else we can and so we set out coring, chopping and blending the tomatoes and now everything is reducing. It's 11:30 PM and it's reducing. It needs to reduce by half. That's not happening any time in the near future. Actually, the foreseeable future seems dim as well. But, it sure does smell like ketchup which has us both pretty tickled. I promised her I'd take photos every hour until it's done and post them tomorrow. I'm thinking it will be at least 3 hours and maybe more for it to reduce by half and then add canning time on top of it. If nothing else, it's quiet and honestly, it's pretty darn cool, although I don't think I'll start making ketchup in the evening again.
Hopefully it will work. Cross your fingers!
Posts
January 27, 2015 - Family update
9 years ago
Making your own ketchup! What a neat idea!
ReplyDeleteOh boy.... have any other projects laying around to keep you awake? Can you wait on the canning after the reducing? Good luck!
ReplyDeleteYour post takes me back to when I was a young mother. I made ketchup! And it was so delicious. You've inspired me. I should make it again.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid it's looking like less of a neat idea the later it gets. It's an hour after the post and it hasn't reduced an iota. So....here's a list of what I need to know:
ReplyDeleteDon't do this at night.
an 8 qt pot is not big enough.
Don't put your finger in the way of your knife.
Don't do this at night.
Don't let an over tired child who won't go to bed see you with their last Spiderman bandaid on that same finger.
Go buy spice bags. A coffee filter will work, but I just busted mine (thankfully none spilled.)
And finally, although I'm sure there will be more lessons to come, don't do this at night.
Or rather, I was thinking maybe this isn't so bad after all. When else am I going to have hours upon hours where there's no one calling my name, no one to watch, no errands to run etc. Maybe this is the best time after all.
Now reduce, da*# it.
The sliced finger I know you could do without.....hope things turned out OK!
ReplyDeleteOh dear! Yes, I too have found that doing anything canning/preserving ends up taking much longer than planned. I am sure your late night will be rewarding when you enjoy your own homemade ketchup.
ReplyDeleteIt turned out okay. Very sweet, but not bad. Not sure if I'll use it just like every day ketchup, but I bet it will be mean on a meat loaf.
ReplyDeleteOh gosh, this reminds me of my spaghetti sauce making ordeal from last year. Lots of work, and took forever!
ReplyDeleteYou need to sound a little more convincing than that. Perhaps just tired from the nighttime activity. Give it 24 hours and report back to us.
ReplyDeleteThat is so funny, exactly what I do! Not the ketchup, but doing ANY type of canning, preserving, etc... wait until those kids are put away LOL
ReplyDeleteOh how fun! How long did it end up taking? Can't wait to see pictures
ReplyDeleteHow much ketchup can you make with 24 lbs of tomatoes? That sounds like a lot of work, and I hope you were rewarded with a yummy product!
ReplyDelete9 pints. I got 10, but it could have simmered down for another hour, but I was spent.
ReplyDelete