Thursday, March 26, 2009

Make your own ketchup

My boys eat a ton of ketchup ~ good thing it is considered a vegetable!
But have you ever read the ingredient list? The second ingredient listed after tomatoes is high fructose corn syrup. I'm trying to rid our diets of this nasty little chemical and found a great (and easy) recipe in Nourishing Traditions.
I made a batch today and it will ferment on the counter for the next two days. I tasted it before putting it into the jars and it tastes just like the stuff from the store. I'm sure the fermentation will add a bit of twang to it like vinegar does in the processed stuff. I did have to add distilled water (because chlorinated water will kill the lactobacilli) to thin it out a bit. It increased the volume enough to give us an extra pint!

Homemade Ketchup
from the book Nourishing Traditions
by Sally Fallon

3 Cups canned organic tomato paste (about six small cans)
1/4 Cup whey (strain a carton of plain organic yogurt, the water you get is whey)
1 tablespoon sea salt
1/2 cup maple syrup (the REAL stuff - not Aunt Jemima's!)
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
3 cloves garlic peeled and mashed
1/2 cup fish sauce (can be found on the Asian foods aisle)

Mix all ingredients. Place in a quart sized, wide mouthed mason jar. The top of the ketchup should be at least one inch below the top of the jar. Leave at room temp. for two days before transferring to the refrigerator.


1 comment:

Linda said...

This is weird, but I have been thinking just this week that I want to make our own ketchup! Thank you!