Homemade Ketchup Recipe

Ketchup is a family condiment staple. Who can imagine being a kid without ketchup? The problem is it can be chock-full of stuff we don’t really want our kids to eat like high fructose corn syrup, salt, potassium chloride, starches, and preservatives. So what’s the alternative? How about making your own ketchup? Here is a simple, homemade ketchup recipe and you control the ingredients – like using organic tomatoes and cutting down on the sugar.

Homemade Ketchup Recipe excerpted from The Kitchen Pantry Cookbook by Erin Coopey, Quarry Books, 2013. Available on Amazon, affiliate link below.

Easy Homemade Ketchup Recipe

Makes about 2 cups of homemade ketchup

Home Ketchup Ingredients:

2¼ pounds plum tomatoes

1½ cups distilled white vinegar

2½ teaspoons coarse sea salt or kosher salt

1 cup sugar (for a less-sweet ketchup, use ½ cup)

1 tablespoon grated onion or 1 teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon mustard powder

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon ground allspice

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

Homemade Ketchup Recipe Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the tomatoes and blanch until the skins break and the flesh becomes soft, 5 to 10 minutes. Drain the tomatoes and press through a fine-mesh food mill or sieve to remove the skins and seeds.

2. Pour the sieved tomatoes into a medium-size saucepan. Add the vinegar and salt. Stir to combine. Bring the tomato mixture to a boil and then whisk in the sugar, onion, and spices.

3. Return to a low boil, stirring occasionally, and cook until the mixture has reduced to one-fourth the original amount and has thickened, about 1 hour. Some tomatoes are more watery than others, so additional cooking might be necessary to reduce moisture. Your ketchup should be the consistency of tomato purée, slightly thinner than bottled ketchup. It will thicken slightly when it cools.

4. Pour into a sterilized jar. Cover and refrigerate. Store your homemade ketchup covered in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.

I hope you enjoy this easy to make, homemade ketchup recipe.  It is so good and sure to impress your friends and family.

Guest post by Erin Coopey, the Glorified HomeChef. Her cookbook, The Kitchen Pantry Cookbook, was just published this month. It features everything that you’d find in your refrigerator or pantry but you make it yourself – condiments, salad dressings, nut butters and fruit spreads, quick pickles and relishes, stocks, and chips and dips. Most recipes can be made in under an hour and there’s no canning involved. The recipes are be appealing to families because they know exactly what they were feeding their children – eliminating food dyes, preservatives, gluten and high fructose corn syrup.