I used to make tomato catsup and grape catsup for my DBIL. I know the latter sounds odd, but it's actually pretty good. Of course he eats grape jelly on most things that he doesn't put catsup on.
1 peck ripe red tomatoes (~12.5 lbs)
2 medium onions
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 c cider vinegar
1 1/2 Tbl stick cinnamon, broken
1 Tbl whole cloves
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 1/4 c sugar (white, raw or brown)
2 1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbl paprika
Remove the skin from the tomatoes (Immerse in boiling water for a minute.) and remove the stem end. Boil tomatoes until soft. (about 15 min) Slice onions & fry until soft. Put the cooked onion & tomatoes through a sieve to pulp them. Add cayenne & boil until mixture is half original volume. (This may take 4 - 6 hours.)
While tomato & onion are boiling, make a spice bag & put cinnamon, cloves & garlic into bag. Put vinegar into an enamel pan, immerse the spice bag & simmer for 30 minutes. Cover & set aside with spice bag still in it.
Once pulp is reduced by half, remove spice bag from vinegar & measure 1 1/4 c of the vinegar. Add sugar, salt & paprika to measured vinegar. If the consistency is too thin, boil again until it's right. Otherwise just boil 10 min & pour while boiling hot into pre-sterilized canning jars & seal.
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Or for an easier recipe:
8 lb ripe tomatoes, washed & quartered
2 red peppers, seeded
2 green peppers, seeded
4 medium onions
3 c white vinegar
3 c sugar
3 Tbl salt
1 1/2 tsp allspice
3 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp cloves
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp hot red pepper
Wash & clean tomatoes, peppers & onions; place in blender a couple cups at a time. Add vinegar as needed for liquid to make veggies chop to pulp. (If needed, you can pour off some of the vinegar to re-use on remaining veggies.) When veggies are desired consistency, pour into a shallow roaster & continue to whirl remaining veggies. Add sugar, salt, allspice, dry mustard, cloves, cinnamon & red pepper. Bake uncovered at 325 until volume is reduced by half, stirring occasionally. (about 3 to 4 hours) Seal while hot. Yield: 5 pints
Do
not double recipe as it won't fit in most roasters.
