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Susie's Homemade Ketchup

Source of Recipe


From "At My Grandmother's Knee" by Faye Porter



List of Ingredients



• 1 peck tomatoes, very ripe (about 18 baseball-size tomatoes)
  
• 6 medium green bell peppers, chopped
  
• 10 large onions, chopped
  
• 10 large apples, chopped
  
• 2 cups cider vinegar
  
• 3 tsp salt
  
• 2½ cups sugar
  
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  
• 1 tsp ground cloves
  
• 1 Tbsp paprika
  
• .
  
• 4 pint jars with lids and seals
  






Instructions



1. Core the tomatoes and slice into wedges. Put them in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add the peppers, onions, and apples. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, for 20 to 30 minutes -- when the tomatoes cook down and the skins fall off, they are ready. (They need to be mushy enough to get good juice from a sieve or colander.)
   
   
2. Put a sieve or colander over a clean pot. Pour the cooked tomato, onion, and apple mixture over the sieve or colander. Continually press the contents into the colander to get all of the juice out. Discard the contents of the sieve or colander and keep all of the juice that has drained into the pot below.
   
   
3. To the pot add the vinegar, salt, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and paprika. Cook the mixture over low to medium heat, stirring frequently until it thickens, for 1 to 2 hours, depending on how thick you like your ketchup.
   
   
4. When the ketchup is as thick as you like, pour the boiling hot mixture into sterilized jars, leaving ¼ inch of space at the top. When cool, store in the refrigerator. Alternatively, you can use the hot-canning / water-bath method to extend the shelf life.
   
   
5. To can:
   Place jars in a canner and keep them covered with at least 1 inch of water above the top of the jars. Keep the water boiling. Process pint jars in the boiling-water bath for 35 minutes. Lift the jars out of the water and let them cool in a draft-free place -- being careful not to touch or bump the jars while they sit. Allow to sit at least 12 hours. Once the jars are cool, you can check that they are sealed by verifying that the lid has been sucked down. Press gently in the center of the lid with your finger. if it pops up and down (often making a popping sound), it is not sealed. If you put the jar in the refrigerator right away, you can still use the contents. Only those jars that are properly sealed can be stored unrefrigerated.
   
   
   Makes 3 to 4 pints.