Homemade Ketchup

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  The Best Ketchup ever...of course doesn't have a "real" recipe.

  From Adam Nafziger:

  28 lbs of tomatoes, halved or quartered (I used roma and cut off the top stem)

  2 small onions, chopped

  1 red bell pepper, chopped

  4 cloves garlic, chopped

  A little water to coat the bottom of the kettle and make you feel good

  Cook the above until all the veggies are completely soft and mushy, about an hour or so.

  Run the mixture through a sieve to removed stems, seeds and skin.

  Put the veggie mixture back in a largish kettle and add:

  1/4 - 1/3 cup pickling spices, tied up in a cheesecloth bag

  1 generous cup of sugar (depends on how sweet and ripe your tomatoes were ... super fresh ripe ones won't need as much, any sweetener of choice would do the job. If you use apple juice or something similar, it will take longer to cook down, but will work just fine)

  3 cups cider vinegar

  1 or 2 palmfuls of salt

  Bring to a boil and cook. And cook. And cook. It may take 12 hours or more. This summer the cooking on mine went for two days, but not continuously; I stopped overnight. So, cook it down until it looks like ketchup. (One website says you can do this in a crockpot ... I'm skeptical).

  When ketchup has reached desired consistency, remove spice bag, adjust seasonings (some people add cayenne or white pepper or even mustard, apparently) and can it hot.

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