Expanded Food Storage: Ketchup

I looked at several recipes for making ketchup that were not canning recipes.  I tried a few of those when I had a massive garden and bushels and bushels of tomatoes.  They were total flops.

But ketchup is kinda important, especially for hamburgers and French fries and going with the current 1950's diner food theme.  The recipes I came across were pretty much the same as far as sugar, vinegar, and most common seasoning ratios.  Some added allspice, cinnamon, and/or cloves. Some started with tomato sauce and cooked it down.  I wasn't fond of that idea.  Grid-down, I don't want to use any more fuel than I have to.  Some started with tomato paste and then added water, which is a bit better.  However, there's still the problem that canned tomato products don't have a long shelf life.  I've had cans bulge in as little as two years past the use-by date.   So I went with a recipe that used tomato powder as the base.

Because all the recipes made a large quantity of ketchup, and again, that is something I don't want when the grid goes down since there may not be adequate refrigeration, I scaled the recipe down.

Here's what I used:

Ketchup

1/4 cup tomato powder
1 tablespoon sugar (or honey, molasses, or maple syrup)
2 tablespoons white distilled vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon dry mustard
3/4 - 1 cup water (start with 3/4 cup and add until you get the desired consistency)

Combine the dry ingredients first.  (If using honey, molasses, or maple syrup, combine that with water.)  If you don't the spices may clump up and be difficult to mix in.  Whisk in the vinegar and water until you achieve the desired consistency.

Makes about 10 ounces.

I made the above recipe using commercial tomato powder as well as powder from home grown and dehydrated and powdered tomatoes.  I had five taste testers, including The King and The Queen of the Picky Eaters.   All agreed that the ketchup made with the store-bought tomato powder was good and they would be happy to eat it.  But all also agreed that it was a bit tomato-ey and needed a little more sweetener or spice.  However, since everybody's ideas on what ketchup should taste like differ, I'm not going to worry about that.  I'll leave it up to the readers to do their own tweaking.  For my family, I'm going with maple syrup next time.

I also want to add that the tomato powders I used were old.  The commercial stuff was purchased in 2008, and the home stuff was dehydrated in 2009.  The commercial powder is still a very bright red and the ketchup is also nice and bright.  The homemade powder is the dark reddish orangish brown that is typical for home dehydrated tomato powder and it does not have the smooth consistency of the commercial powder.  While some might be a little disturbed at the idea of using food so old, I think it is a huge advantage.  There is no way canned tomato products would have that kind of shelf life. I have a few bottles of Trader Joe's ketchup here; the older bottles are substantially darker than the newer ones.  While the ketchup might still be safe to eat a few years out of date, it definitely isn't going to be as appealing if it is dark.

All in all, I really liked making my own ketchup.  All the ingredients are items I keep on hand in abundance, so while I will probably continue buying ketchup for the convenience, I also don't have to worry about storing enough to last through the interesting times ahead.  We can quite easily make our own.