Ketchup recipe

You guys, Im sorry for not getting around to your blogs, I truly am. Hopefully I can catch up with your lives this weekend. Right now I am waist deep in tomatoes and apples. Tink and I picked 200 pounds of apples at the neighbors yesterday.

I finished the batches of ketchup I had started but in checking the tomatoes this morning it appears that I need to make some more since tomatoes are ripening fast on the table.

My sauce maker is operated by turning a handle. That means that my elbow is acting up! Pain is shooting up to my shoulder. Yesterday I had to get on a ladder to get the apples and not only that I took a shovel and used it to shake limbs and reach apples I couldn't reach. Standing on the top step of a ladder and swinging a shovel at the branches was not something this old body liked. I put my neck out of place on top of firing up that elbow.

My husband, bless his heart, took pity on me and spent last night remaking my strainer. Now instead of being operated with a handle he has put a motor on that thing! I kid you not. I just pour the stewed apples or cooked tomatoes in the top bowl and the machine runs the auger and makes the sauce. Its going to cut down my canning time considerably. I really should take a pic and show you all this contraption. It's something else.

I was asked how many tomatoes it takes to make ketchup. You really have to have a lot of tomatoes to get enough sauce. Yesterday I used 20 pounds of tomatoes and got 12 pints of ketchup. Now let it be understood here, even though the recipe says ketchup this recipe I use is not Ketchup as you know it. It's runnier and its spicier. It really comes into its own when used on pork. I also use this in my baked bean recipe. The spices and sugar and tomatoes cannot be equaled in baked beans.

Here's the recipe I use:

20 lbs of tomatoes
6 large onions
8 cups of sugar
1 T cloves
1 T salt
1 1/2 T cinnamon
1 T dry mustard
4 cups of vinegar

Chop tomatoes and onions and boil until soft. Pour into strainer and drain two hours. Run tomatoes and onions through a sieve or your strainer. Now take the sauce and add the remaining 5 ingredients. Stir and boil for ten minutes. Put into jars and then into water bath. Boil jars in water bath for 10 minutes.

Okay I have to get back to work here. Peter has half a day of school today so I need to get him up and going.