I received a request from a reader for a recipe for homemade ketchup. To truly make ketchup from scratch, a person would have to grow their own tomatoes, cut them into little pieces, boil them down, run the juice through a sieve, and then add the rest of the ingredients.

However, I place that right along spinning your own wool, or making your own soap. If you have the inclination, great. Most of us just don't want to go that far.

It is much easier to start out with some tomato paste, thin it slightly with water and add the sugar, and spices.

Here are the basics:

1 can tomato paste
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cloves
2 tablespoons cider vinegar

Mix together, cover and refrigerate. Remember that when you make things from scratch, they don't have as many preservatives (good and bad). You are going to have to use it up in a month or so.

For those of you who wish to pursue this, here is a URL to find recipes for many varieties of ketchup, previously unknown to me! They include:

Green Tomato Ketchup
Banana Ketchup
Blueberry Ketchup
Traditional Tomato Ketchup
Ketchup Sauce
Mushroom Ketchup
Smokey Tomato Ketchup
Tomato Apple Ketchup
Cumin-Chipotle Ketchup
Tomatoless Ketchup
Roasted Ketchup
Curry Ketchup

http://www.ketchup.wonderland.org/

Reprinted with permission from:
The Pennypincher
An E-zine for the Frugally Minded