Super Homemade Ketchup for Winter
This version comes out with a gentle sweetness—tasty, wholesome, and all-natural! The flavor depends on which spices you add to the tomato base; this sweet version is a lot like a classic homestyle tomato sauce.
Cooking method
-
Step 1:
Roughly chop and add to a large pot: the tomatoes (or purée them in a blender), the apples (cored), the bell peppers, the hot peppers, and the garlic. Set it over the heat, bring to a boil, and simmer for 15–20 minutes.
-
Step 2:
Blend the hot mixture until smooth and return it to the pot.
-
Step 3:
Now add the salt, sugar, and cloves. Cook it down for 1 to 1.5 hours until it reaches the thickness you want, adding the vinegar 15 minutes before the end.
-
Step 4:
Ladle the hot ketchup into jars and seal them. Turn the jars upside down on their lids, wrap them in a blanket, and leave them until completely cool. Enjoy!
- This homemade tomato-and-apple ketchup won my family over long ago. It's tastier than store-bought and free of additives, and it's a great way to use up overripe, bruised, or cracked tomatoes that aren't good for drying or pickling—so it's a win all around. It goes with everything, from pasta to grilled meats; a sauce like this is always handy to have around. A few notes before you start: any tomatoes will do, variety doesn't matter, as long as they're very ripe—tomatoes that have soaked up plenty of sun make the best sauce, since they're sweeter and more aromatic. Use firm apples, sweet-tart or sweet. Once the sugar and salt go in, the mixture starts to scorch, so stir it often. For a smoother texture without skins or seeds, push the blended mixture through a sieve. Store it only in clean, sterile jars, and be sure to boil the lids. To avoid fishing peppercorns and whole cloves out of a big pot of sauce, tie them up in cheesecloth—then they're easy to pull out when it's done. If you like a sweet sauce, use sweet apples. There are a few ways to make ketchup: simmer the chopped vegetables until soft and grind them together in a meat grinder, blender, or food processor, then cook down—or first juice the tomatoes, cook the juice down, and then add the rest of the vegetables.
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Tomatoes - 23 kcal/100g
- Apples - 47 kcal/100g
- Dried apples - 210 kcal/100g
- Canned apple mousse - 61 kcal/100g
- Sweet pepper - 27 kcal/100g
- Garlic - 143 kcal/100g
- Carnation - 323 kcal/100g
- Granulated sugar - 398 kcal/100g
- Sugar - 398 kcal/100g
- Wine vinegar (3%) - 9 kcal/100g
- Vinegar 9% - 11 kcal/100g
- Balsamic vinegar - 88 kcal/100g
- Apple vinegar - 14 kcal/100g
- Vinegar - 11 kcal/100g
- Hot capsicum - 40 kcal/100g
- Salt - 0 kcal/100g
