The Ketchup Fiasco

[catlady]

So I was canning tomatoes last fall, and made about 2 gallons of ketchup. I wanted to put it in bottles instead of jars this time, so I had found some that looked like old-fashioned milk bottles and had snapple-type caps. I filled them up with freshly-cooked ketchup, but they were too tall for the water-bath canner. They fit if I laid them down, so they started boiling while I went about some other task. 20 minutes later, there was red steam coming out of the pot--all 3 caps had popped off. I fished them out and managed to rescue most of the ketchup; surprisingly, it hadn't all come out of the bottles.

Then I got the bright idea to use the pressure canner. The milk-bottles fit in there upright, and also some fancy ones with swing-top caps. So I set it up with all 6 bottles. About an hour later, I took the lid off, excited to have bottled ketchup.

Lesson learned: those PLASTIC swing-top caps will MELT in the pressure canner (duh!). And I had no idea if they were now poisonous/BPA-laden, so I had to toss the whole batch (there's no one I dislike enough to serve potentially-toxic condiments).......

[Coco]

Makes a little bit of high fructose corn syrup in commercial ketchup seem almost okay? :D

So sorry you had to go through that. I really admire people who make things from scratch, it's definitely not the easy route.

[Geechee Girl]

Canning and pressure cooking scare me. I fear food exploding onto the ceiling. I haven't had homemade ketchup in ages. I'm sorry all your hard work went down the drain.

[catlady]

thanks for the kind words, geecheegirl and coco!! I just chalked it up to a learning experience.

Canning is actually easier than it sounds; like gardening, it's best to start slowly with something easy. and everyone I've talked to about pressure canners say that modern ones are made so well that explosions are pretty much unheard of anymore (in 2 years, I've had no problems with the canner itself). and I do cheat with my tomato products--instead of peeling and de-seeding them, I just throw them in the blender; it's a lot easier and faster.

[JoyfullyUnavailable]

I admire you canner people! Ibwould love to try it beyond basic raspberry preserve but way too chicken. I also love at a higher altitude then I trust most recipes.  Homemade ketchup sounds amazing. I'm sorry it didn't work out but it's a good story. 

[MarblesMom]

I really, really want to get into canning, as our garden was so bountiful last summer.  I have a glass top electric stove and I read somewhere that my stove is not compatible with canning, for some reason.  A pressure thingy scares me.

Ok, back to ketchup.  First off, SO sorry to hear about your loss.  If you have a decent ketchup recipe, please post it!

Mr MM's grandma made ketchup in the 70s he is still seeking therapy over.  She musta screwed it up pretty bad.  LOL

[AlysonRR]

I have an induction (therefore, glass) cooktop. It was hard finding a pressure cooker that would work on it, but I have one. I don't use it for more than an hour because I've heard the same thing as you about glass cooktops.

When I can anything that takes a long time, or even when I have to boil water for a long time, I use the burner on my outdoor grill.

My mom has a small electric burner (<$30) she uses when she wants to spare her glasstop for a long cook, like making dozens of fried oysters or donuts.

[Grimalkin]

I don't eat ketchup often but it sounds delicious for some reason and I want a pile of French fries and home made ketchup now.

      I never canned myself but I love all sorts of condiments and relishes. Maybe one day I will explore that more. I saw a recipe for making Branson pickles. Could be fun.

 

[catlady]

hi!  i'm kind of a ketchup addict, and i started making it after Mr. CatLady had a gall bladder attack and had to cut back on salt and non-pronounceable preservatives (better for both of us, really).  at the time of this story, i was using a mix from Mrs. Wages.  you can find it at Walmart, Tractor Supply, etc.  but i recently found some recipes online and combined 2 for a batch that turned out pretty well.  i've also mostly given up on bottles; i'll do one fancy bottle per batch, but it goes in the fridge rather than the canner.  now i do those really tiny jars so we can each have our own with a meal.

here's my heavily modified recipe.  i am a very bad and impatient cook, and i am not the least bit of a foodie.  i figure anything can and should be tweaked to one's personal preference.  while it's cooking, you can adjust the sugar, vinegar, and spices.  i hold back a few tablespoons of sug/vin, and add some of it later as needed.  i have always believed that most spices can't be overdone, so just add more.....

two 28-oz cans of tomatoes, your choice of texture (or same volume of fresh, i put whole tomatoes in the blender)

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup vinegar

2/3 cup sugar

1 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp garlic powder (i grow garlic, so i chop fresh garlic to taste)

3/4 tsp salt (i usually skip this)

1/8 tsp celery salt

1/8 tsp mustard powder (i double this)

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/8 tsp cloves

1 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp thyme

1/8 tsp allspice

1/8 tsp cumin

toss everything in a big non-aluminum pot (hold back a little of anything you want to adjust).  bring to a boil, then simmer for about 25 minutes.  make adjustments to your preference.

when done, can or refrigerate.

On 12/10/2015 at 1:23 PM, JoyfullyUnavailable said:

I admire you canner people! Ibwould love to try it beyond basic raspberry preserve but way too chicken. I also love at a higher altitude then I trust most recipes.  Homemade ketchup sounds amazing. I'm sorry it didn't work out but it's a good story. 

i actually have a really hard time with jam/preserves.  ketchup and most tomato products are very easy.

On 12/23/2015 at 4:25 PM, Grimalkin said:

I don't eat ketchup often but it sounds delicious for some reason and I want a pile of French fries and home made ketchup now.

      I never canned myself but I love all sorts of condiments and relishes. Maybe one day I will explore that more. I saw a recipe for making Branson pickles. Could be fun.

 

i do make pickles and relish.  my relish was really just diced pickles, but it came out well.

On 12/19/2015 at 10:10 PM, AlysonRR said:

I have an induction (therefore, glass) cooktop. It was hard finding a pressure cooker that would work on it, but I have one. I don't use it for more than an hour because I've heard the same thing as you about glass cooktops.

When I can anything that takes a long time, or even when I have to boil water for a long time, I use the burner on my outdoor grill.

My mom has a small electric burner (<$30) she uses when she wants to spare her glasstop for a long cook, like making dozens of fried oysters or donuts.

i've heard that glass tops don't work well with most pressure canners.  but since i really want my next stove to be glass (i really really hate cleaning burners on both gas and standard electric stoves), i like your mom's idea of the separate burner.  

[CrazyCatLady]

I make my own mayo, but my one attempt at making ketchup was a disaster!

[catlady]

On January 22, 2016 at 10:10 PM, CrazyCatLady said:

I make my own mayo, but my one attempt at making ketchup was a disaster!

I've been interested in this, but since the recipes I've found involve raw eggs it has to be consumed within a week.  We use mayo sporadically, so it's likely we'd waste a lot.  

We have backyard chickens, so this year I made egg nog, and it was really good.