Easy Homemade Ketchup Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How is ketchup made step by step? ›

It starts with the selection of quality tomatoes with superior color, flavor, and texture. These tomatoes are harvested, washed, and processed to eliminate impurities. Tomato pulp is then cooked and mixed with sweeteners, vinegar, salt, spices, and flavorings.

Ingredients: TOMATO CONCENTRATE FROM RED RIPE TOMATOES, DISTILLED VINEGAR, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CORN SYRUP, SALT, SPICE, ONION POWDER, NATURAL FLAVORING.

The first ketchup recipe included neither tomatoes, vinegar, nor many other ingredients that make ketchup well… ketchup. The first base of the sauce was fish, then oysters, mushrooms, and only after that – tomatoes. How did ketchup transform from Asian fish sauce to universally loved tomato dip?

Because you are making it yourself, you get to use the freshest, highest quality ingredients. You don't even need to cook anything. Your homemade ketchup with the right mix of fresh herbs and spices will be way better than manufactured ketchup.

The main ingredients of ketchup are tomatoes, sweeteners, vinegar, salt, spices, flavourings, onion, and/or garlic. The types of sweetener used are usually granulated cane sugar or beet sugar. Other sweeteners include dextrose or liquid sugar in the form of corn or glucose syrup.

He demonstrated the trick by holding the bottle from the bottom then swinging it around in a circular motion for a few seconds. The centrifugal of the rapid movement shifts the remaining ketchup to the top of the bottle where the cap is.

Two ingredients of concern in ketchup are salt and sugar. Per tablespoon, ketchup contains 4 grams of sugar and 190 milligrams of sodium. Although 4 grams of sugar doesn't seem like a lot, much of it comes from added sugar, as opposed to the natural sugar found in tomatoes.

Pack and Store Your Homemade Ketchup

Ketchup will keep 3 weeks in the fridge or 6 months in the freezer. Ketchup can also be water bath canned using the hot pack method.

As it turns out, they're the same thing!

Ketchup and catsup are both Westernized terms for a condiment that has origins in China: fish sauce. Ketchup as we know it today is a modernized version of fish sauce, which was made in port towns on the South China Sea with salted and fermented anchovies.

The first known published tomato ketchup recipe appeared in 1812, written by scientist and horticulturalist, James Mease, who referred to tomatoes as “love apples.” His recipe contained tomato pulp, spices, and brandy but lacked vinegar and sugar.

What was ketchup in 1830? ›

In the 1830s, tomato ketchup was sold as a medicine, claiming to cure ailments like diarrhea, indigestion, and jaundice. The idea was proposed by Dr John Cook Bennett, who later sold the recipe in form of 'tomato pills'.

We think of ketchup as a thick red sauce, but it was something pretty different in the beginning. It originated as a thin soy sauce made from fermented fish most likely from a region called Tonkin, or in what we call Vietnam today. It was common throughout Southeast Asia in the 17th century.

It contains high quantities of sugar, salt, fructose, preservatives and corn syrup. All of these ingredients when combined together have an adverse effect on the body.

As someone that has made my own ketchup and tomato sauces at home, I challenge the “cheap” part of that. I've always found it more expensive to make my own, not less. That doesn't mean it's not worth it to buy the ingredients I need (if I could grow them myself, that might make a big difference in cost, but I can't).

Sir Kensington's Classic Ketchup

Made with fresh tomatoes (rather than paste or concentrate), a variety of seasonings and spices, and organic cane sugar, Sir Kensington's ketchup is a go-to for nutritionist Robin Werner, RD. It has a uniquely spicy, tangy vibe.

Ketchup is made up of five ingredients: brine, vinegar, sugar, tomato paste, and the secret spices. The process is mainly about heating the ketchup and cooling it down. Afterwards, we fill it up into the bottles. The boxes with caps are emptied and transported upstairs.

We think of ketchup as a thick red sauce, but it was something pretty different in the beginning. It originated as a thin soy sauce made from fermented fish most likely from a region called Tonkin, or in what we call Vietnam today. It was common throughout Southeast Asia in the 17th century.

If you enjoy ketchup, you may be happy to hear that because it's made with tomatoes, it's a good source of lycopene. Adding more lycopene to your diet may help protect you from cancer, heart disease, and other chronic conditions. However, some ketchup varieties prove high in sugar and salt.

The Main Difference: Sugar Content

This is because traditional tomato sauce tends to be made with just tomatoes, herbs, onion, garlic, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. On the other hand, ketchup usually has added sugar in it (usually cane or corn syrup) which gives it its sweeter flavor profile.