Homemade Ketchup: My return to blogging!

Last night, I came home from work and started on some pan-fried hamburgers (grass-fed of course), and while they were sizzling, I whipped up a batch of ketchup…and not just any ketchup, lacto-fermented ketchup. As I was mixing I started thinking about how just over two years ago I never dreamed that doing things like making ketchup would become a part of normal, everyday life.

Yesterday, I had a guest post appear on the Real Food in Little Rock blog about how I fulfilled my 2011 New Year’s Food Resolutions. At the end I mentioned my one resolution for this year was to get back into blogging…so here I go!

I thought that over the next few weeks I would share my recipes for condiments: mayo, ketchup, and the like. When you start eating traditionally, I think it’s easy to overlook the little things like sauces and salad dressing, but have you ever paid attention to the ingredients in those things? DISGUST! Soybean oil and high fructose corn syrup are two key players, not to mention MSG.

Making your own condiments isn’t as intimidating as you think. With the right tools they don’t take much time at all. I think the biggest part is tweaking things to your own tastes. The recipes I will be sharing are the results of many many taste tests and ingredient adjustments. My poor recipes are all marked up from me changing amounts and ingredients every time.

I’m starting off with my ketchup recipe. I developed my recipe from a random ketchup recipe I found on the ol’ interwebs. I looked at the recipe in Nourishing Traditions but – no offense Sally – fish sauce? UGH! Sorry. I have learned to love beef tongue and willingly swallow my fermented cod liver oil (most days), but I refuse to put fish sauce in my ketchup.

I’m forewarning you here – don’t expect this to taste like Hunt’s. It’s definitely different, but in a good way, in my humble opinion. It tastes fresher…less processed. Play with it until you get it just the way your family likes it.

Homemade Ketchup

1 can of tomato paste

(You’ll just have to do as I say, and not as I do here, and use tomato paste in glass jars. May have to up the ingredients though if there is more paste than the usual can of paste. I need to work on buying tomato products in glass jars to avoid the BPA linings.)

¼ cup water

1 Tbsp palm sugar

(if you choose to use a sweetener other than palm sugar I would suggest reducing the amount because palm sugar is such a mild sweeterner.)

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp cumin

½ tsp dried mustard

¼ tsp garlic powder

1 Tbsp whey

Mix together all ingredients. Cover and leave sitting on the counter for two days, then refrigerate. It will keep for several months in the fridge.

Enjoy!

This post is linked to: Delicious Obsession's Traditional Tuesdays, Real Food Forager's Fat Tuesday, Kelly the Kitchen Kop's Real Food Wednesday, and The Healthy Home Economist's Monday Mania.