Search

Join Culinate! Login or Register

Join Culinate

With a free Culinate membership, you can:

Create your own recipe collections
Queue recipes for later use
Blog your culinary endeavors
Be part of our online community of cooks
And much more…

Smoky Tomato Ketchup

From the book Gifts Cooks Love by Diane Morgan

Prep Time	30 minutes
Cook Time	1 hour
Yield	3 (8-ounce) bottles

Introduction

It’s hard to believe I would make my own ketchup to give as gifts, considering that I grew up in Pittsburgh — home of Heinz and the big “Heinz 57” sign boldly lit and dominant on the skyline. It never even occurred to me that ketchup could be homemade until I ate at Paley’s Place in Portland, Oregon, and had chef Vitaly Paley’s deliciously nuanced ketchup. He makes all his condiments from scratch, including his ketchup, and I was inspired to make my own.

I wanted the bright, fresh flavors of Vitaly’s ketchup but with a smoky twist, so with his advice, I smoked the onions before stewing them with the tomatoes. Given in old-fashioned, hinge-topped, clear glass bottles, these make an adorable summertime present for the host of a backyard barbecue or as part of a Father’s Day gift.

Ingredients

	2	Tbsp. pulverized applewood smoking chips
	1	medium yellow onion, cut into ½-inch-thick rounds
	1	can (28-oz.) crushed tomatoes, including the juice from the can
	1	Tbsp. capers, drained and rinsed
	½	cup firmly packed light-brown sugar
	~	Juice of 1 orange, strained
	~	Juice of ½ grapefruit, strained
	~	Juice of ½ lemon, strained
	¼	cup cider vinegar
	2½	tsp. kosher or sea salt
	¼	tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Steps

Smoke the onions: Using a stovetop smoker or wok, place the wood chips in two small piles in the center of the pan. If using a smoker, place a drip tray, covered with aluminum foil, on top of the chips. If using a wok, set a large sheet of aluminum foil loosely in place over the wood chips. Place a wire rack on top of the drip tray or foil. Arrange the onion slices on the wire rack. Slide the lid on the stovetop smoker or cover the wok, leaving it slightly open, and then place the smoker over medium heat. When the first wisp of smoke appears, close the lid. Smoke the onions for 5 minutes, then turn off the heat and leave the onions in the smoker or wok, with the lid tightly closed, for an additional 5 minutes. Remove the onions from the smoker and coarsely chop.
Prep the tomatoes: Purée the tomatoes in a blender on high speed until liquefied, about 2 minutes. Transfer the tomatoes to a deep 6-quart saucepan or Dutch oven and reserve.
Prep the other ingredients: Purée the onions and capers in the blender on high speed for 1 minute. Add the sugar and continue blending on high speed until the onion mixture is smooth, about 1 minute longer. Add the citrus juices, vinegar, salt, and pepper, and blend to incorporate. Transfer the onion mixture to the pot with the tomatoes and stir to combine.
Cook the ketchup: Over medium heat, bring the tomato-and-onion mixture to a simmer. Decrease the heat to maintain a low simmer, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens to a ketchup consistency, 50 minutes to 1 hour.
Prep the bottles: While the ketchup is simmering, wash the bottles in hot, soapy water and dry thoroughly. Alternatively, run the bottles through the regular cycle of your dishwasher.
Bottle the ketchup: Using a funnel, ladle the ketchup into the prepared bottles, leaving ½ inch headspace. Wipe the rims clean and secure the lids. Label and refrigerate.

This content is from the book Gifts Cooks Love by Diane Morgan.

Culinate Kitchen

Eggplant Agrodolce

First Person

The ketchup memory

Remaking Dad’s favorite condiment

The Produce Diaries

Tomatoes

Great balls of fire

Katherine Deumling

Salsa Verde with Hard-Cooked Egg

Think before you type

Culinate welcomes comments that are on-topic, clean, and courteous. For the benefit of the community we reserve the right to delete comments that contain advertising, personal attacks, profanity, or which are thinly disguised attempts to promote another website.

Please enter your comment

Comment

I recommend this recipe

Format: Bare URLs are automatically linked; use this style: [http://www.example.com "place text to be linked here"] for prettier links. You may specify *bold* or _italic_ text. No HTML please.