I'm thinking about giving it a shot and was curious if anyone has done it and any possible advice.

Tag.

I tried spaghetti sauce last year and it was awful.

http://www.pickyourown.org/oldrecipecatsup.htm

This is what I'm looking at doing.  Still need to get a food mill and it will probably be a couple weeks until I give it a shot.  I'll report results/pics here when I do.

Curious if anyone has done it though.

give it a shot, dont think you will save money but it might be fun.

Ketchup:
1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce or tomato puree
1 small onion, peeled and halved, root end left intact
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
3 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 cinnamon stick or a pinch of ground cinnamon

Place the tomato sauce, onion, vinegar, sugar, tomato paste, salt, and cinnamon stick (or ground cinnamon, if using) in a medium saucepan. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until thick, about 1 hour. Remove the onion and cinnamon stick and discard. Cool for 30 minutes and refrigerate until ready to use.

Can use tomato paste only, mix 1 part paste with 3 parts water.  A 6 lb 15 oz can of paste makes 8 qts.

Yes, I've made it before; I will never make it again. At this point in my life I'm just too accustomed to the taste of commercial products that there is no taste/flavor/freshness advantage to making my own. I'd rather do something much more useful with my tomatoes.

I make/can regular tomato sauce that I can use for anything but primarily I use it as pizza sauce and it's killer!!! I have a friend that always tries to buy it from me but I won't sell it.

If you will be processing lots of tomatoes I highly recommend a food-mill. I use a Victorio VPK250 food strainer and it works wonderfully!!! I can sauce 10-15 gallons of tomatoes in an evening and that includes washing, cubing, saucing, cleanup.

To get thicker sauces I then use a 2 gallon extra-fine mesh strainer to strain the sauce leaving me with lots of liquid and fairly thick pulp. Both products get cooked down further but the liquid can be cooked down at higher temps outside with less supervision whereas the pulp must be watched and stirred frequently while cooking at low temps...

This makes the most beautiful red, most powerfully flavorful sauce you'll ever know. I can make paste using this method and it turns out beautiful as well.

i've made it. was good and fairly easy to make. pro tip: rather than buy a victorio strainer or mess with peeling your tomatoes, use your box grater. do it over a large bowl or a lipped baking sheet and you wind up with finely grated pulp and juice and the skin stays in you hand.cut the tomato in half first, then grate.

That's pretty close to the recipe I use except I use less sugar.

It's really easy to overdo it with the cinnamon. It's not bad, but it's not what you'd normally consider ketchup and isn't as versatile.

Used to make it by the 5 gallon bucket for a restaurant. Most important part is finding a way to get it smooth. We used to go as far as a chamois, but then went to a finer mesh strainer. We embraced the slight texture of it instead of striving for perfectly smooth lol.

yes but IMO not worth the bother. Don't do it to save money because you won't.

Hell, yeah, and I'll never buy that tasteless store bought stuff again.
Will have to convert my written notes to digital and post them.  I often start with canned pureed tomatoes when I don't have access to fresh, works great. No food mill required, blender works fine. And to make it even easier, I switched to using the slow cooker, cooks overnight and ready to can in the morning.

Mine has more than tomatoes, also red bell peppers and a few other veggies. Add some horseradish and it's a perfect cocktail sauce for shrimp.

Please post the recipe! That looks great.

OK, here ya go. Nice thing about this recipe is the amounts aren't carved in stone, you can vary with more or less of each veg depending on your taste. This comes down from at least my grandma and maybe her mother.

Homemade Ketchup

Eight quarts meaty plum type tomatos, or 4 28 ounce cans of good quality crushed tomatoes, or 4 28 ounce cans of good quality crushed tomatoes. If using fresh tomatoes, cook down until soft for about thirty minutes before using in recipe. You need about four quarts.
4 red bell peppers, seeded. (green if you must, but red give a better flavor)
1/2 cut celery, chopped
2 cups chopped onion

Process the vegetables in blender or food processor until fairly smooth.
Add them to slow cooker (6 quart or larger size) along with:
2 cups cider vinegar.
2 cloves crushed garlic
2T salt
1/4 C sugar
1/2 C dark brown sugar, packed
(my grandmother's version called for three cups of sugar, I've cut it down significantly)

in a piece of double cheesecloth, tie up and add to pot:
1T mustard seeds
1T allspice berries
1 stick cinnamon, broken up
1 T black peppercorns
1 bayleaf
1t whole cloves
1 t ground coriander (or 2T whole)
1/4t celery seed

I get this started  on high in the cooker, then turn down to low and let go all night with the lid offset a little to let steam out so it can cook down. The volume should reduce by about half. It's done when it mounds up slightly on a spoon... it will thicken more when cooled.
To can process in hot water bath ten minutes.  Flavor is best after you've given it at least a week.
Use as is, or add some hot sauce. If you add horseradish it makes a great cocktail sauce.

Awesome, thanks! I'll give that a try next week.

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