I always thought you couldn’t beat Heinz tomato ketchup, but this weekend I proved myself wrong. It’s a little time consuming but it’s so worth making your own, even just to prove you can do it. This recipe will make one classic Heinz sized bottle of ketchup:
1 kilo tomatoes
1 small onion
2 cloves of garlic, minced
50g brown sugar
60ml cider vinegar
35ml balsamic vinegar
1-2 teaspoons of salt
A pinch of English mustard powder
4 cloves
A pinch of ground all spice
A pinch of ground ginger
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 teaspoon of celery salt
1/2 teaspoon of white ground pepper
Chop the tomatoes and onions into a saucepan. Then, while the pan is on a medium heat, add the the rest of the ingredients. Simmer the sauce for an hour or so. Blend it with a stick blender or in a blender.
Then, now this is a bit of a pain in the butt but it’s the only way to get the consistency of ketchup…press the blended ketchup through a strong sieve. It takes a while. There should be nothing left in your sieve but skin and seeds plus the cloves and cinnamon stick. Chuck that.
Meanwhile you have sterilised your old ketchup bottle by putting it through the dishwasher or putting it in a low oven for ten minutes.
With a funnel, poke the ketchup into the bottle.
I made home-made muffins from Dan Lepard’s recipe. The eggs I baked (after whisking) in a muffin mould. When you slice open the muffin, add a slice of processed cheese for authenticity, then your yellow puck of egg, then dowse with ketchup.
Gosh it was good to read this. My dear Dad had a limited repertoire in the kitchen but every year he made gallons of tomato ketchup – we loved it. So thanks – definitely one to try.
a lot of pinners (yes, on Pinterest) seem to suggest baking eggs like this in batches to make the egg mcmuffins whenever you want. do you think this is ideal?
I have to say, it's really hard to achieve the same Mcdonalds effect on eggs at home. I tried in egg rings first, but they overcooked and the muffin technique worked better. But actually I prefer a fried egg to the yellow puck.
Direct me to the pinners discussion please…I'm interested.
oh my goodness I am salivating much….
you're mad! you made EVERYTHING from scratch, ketchup and muffins included, I'm impressed!
thanks Shu. My shrink would agree with you!
When you blend it, do the cloves and cinnamon stick stay big enough to not go through the sieve and get sharp bits in the finished product?