Oven Baked Tomato Ketchup

Max, you poor dear. Freezing all that corn and then standing over a kettle of pickling spices to make Corn Relish. But as that old tune from James Bond’s The Spy Who Loved Me says “Nobody does it better… Nobody is half as good as you.” That describes your Corn Relish.

I had never canned anything, or pickled, or dried, or even frozen anything until I met you, and you sort of shamed me into trying to preserve the summer. You made me feel a sort of moral obligation to be the good housewife. As you pointed out it is nearly a crime to let good, fresh produce go to waste. Actually your appeal to the less than frugal side of my personality wasn’t what made me start trying to can. It was the taste. And the knowledge that I knew what was in the jars I put up. When I read the labels on some of the grocery store products, I shutter. If I can’t pronounce it, it mustn’t be good for us.

One thing I learned from you was to make home made tomato ketchup. My family loves it, and you know what a chore it is to make. A few weeks ago my son sadly announced that he was bringing up the LAST bottle of ketchup. Ergo, I had better plan on making a big batch this summer.

So, yesterday, with the kitchen gods happy because it was 99 degrees outside, I made ketchup. Only this year I cheated. I read last winter that you can make ketchup in the oven. The recipe was pretty bland, but the idea stuck in my head.

Now this won’t work with the huge amounts of ketchup you make, but it worked like a charm for me. I just used my old faithful ketchup recipe and instead of standing for hours (that optimist recipe says for an hour or so, but 3 or 4 hours is more like it), I let the oven do all the work. No stirring. No worrying that with all the sugar and spices it might stick. Have you ever had ketchup to scorch? You, probably not. But me? Yep, and you talk about a stinking mess!! I must have scrubbed on the kettle for hours!! Not ot mention having to throw out all that hard work.

I used my largest blue enameled turkey roaster–the one that barely fits in the oven. I filled that sucker to the very brim. Eight hours later (no stirring, no dropping, red faced Erma) it was reduced to half and was beautiful. Best of all, I slept through the whole thing. True, the house did smell a bit of tomatoes and spice, but it always does when you make ketchup.

You can do the math, but that giant turkey roaster full of juice and spices made 16 pints of ketchup. In other words, I about tripled the original recipe. Did I mention that I had seeds, skins, onion skins and sugar all over the kitchen?

Oven Baked Tomato Ketchup:

1 peck ripe tomatoes (8 quarts, or about 50 medium tomatoes)
2 cups finely chopped onions (about 3 large)
1 cup chopped sweet red peppers (about 2 large)
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon canning salt
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 tablespoon whole allspice
1 tablespoon whole cloves
1 tablespoon peppercorns
2 teaspoons mustard seed
1 bay leaf
¾ cup brown sugar
2 cups cider vinegar

Wash the tomatoes, but do not bother to peel; cut them into small pieces and save all the juice. In a heavy kettle combine the tomatoes, onions, peppers, garlic and salt. Simmer until the mixture is soft about 30 minutes. Press through a sieve or food mill to remove the seeds and skins. You want as much pulp as possible, so all you want left is dry skins and seeds. An Italisn Victoria food mill is great for this.

Tie up the spices and the bay leaf in cheesecloth. (*See below for the old recipe.) Place everything in a large enameled roaster, like a giant turkey roaster. Place in the oven, uncovered at 300 degrees and bake for about 10 hours or until the ketchup has reduced to half and is nice and thick. This long, slow baking produces a very dark ketchup. Using white sugar would make it not quite so dark, but reduces the flavor somewhat.

Have ready 6 pint jars that have been sterilized and boiled for at least 20 minutes. Pour in the ketchup and instantly seal.

*Originally the recipe said to add the spice bag to the tomato juice and sugar in a large kettle. Bring to a medium boil, stirring frequently, until the mixture is reduced to half of its original volume which can be up to 2 hours or more depending on how meaty the tomatoes were. Remove the spice bag and add the vinegar. Simmer for 15 minutes more until the mixture thickens again.

Process in a Boiling-Water Bath for 10 minutes.

Makes 6 pints.

You know, Max, you probably gave me this recipe in the first place. I know that you wouldn’t Boiling Water Bath it, and neither do I. Between the acidity of the tomatoes, the sugar, and the long cooking and sterilized jars, no germ or bacteria is going to survive to grow in the jars.