Homemade Ketchup

The summer holidays are over,  I survived the six weeks with four kids and boy were we busy.  We holidayed in Spain and England, the kids were bridesmaids and pageboy at my best friends wedding, my dolly baby was christened, we day tripped, picnicked, baked, played games, jigsaws and did tons of messy crafts!  phew!

 Ketchup is my kids favourite condiment they all LOVE it.  All I hear is how it's full of sugar and salt so heres my solution.  Guilt free homemade ketchup that tastes as good as the leading brand - let them help themselves! 

Ingredients 

1. Half pint of dark pickling vinegar
2. 3.5lbs ripe tomatoes
3. half pound onions sliced
4. half pound apples (One medium sized)
5. 6oz sugar
6. pinch of cayenne
7. half teasp salt

Method

• Quarter tomatoes, slice onions and chop apples (no need to peel and core tomatoes or apples, but take the skin off the onion!) 
• Put in a large pan and simmer until everything is soft (there should be enough liquid from tomatoes, no need to add anything.  
• When everything is really soft, rub and push all the pan contents through a sieve to extract as much juice as possible.  
• Return juice to the pan and add sugar, cayenne and salt and boil with the lid off pan until it all begins to thicken and get creamy then add the vinegar and continue to boil with lid off, stirring occasionally with wooden spoon.
• The bottles need to be heated before you add the ketchup.  Heat the empty bottles in the oven for 10 minutes remove and pour liquid in and seal immediately. Sterilise the ketchup filled bottles in a simmering water bath for 30 mins.

Instead of pickling vinegar you can use malt vinegar - heat up and add 1 flat teaspoon of pickling spice and leave to infuse for 2 hours