On Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:17:37 +1200, "George.com"
wrote:


wrote in message
.. .
On Sun, 10 Aug 2008 20:32:48 +1200, "George.com"
wrote:


wrote in message
news On Sat, 09 Aug 2008 13:53:19 -0500, zxcvbob
wrote:

Steve Young wrote:
"Omelet" wrote:

Blanch and peel first. You could also stew them and can them as a
sauce. ;-d

Even turn them into ketchup. Anyone tried their hand at this?



Every gardener should make ketchup once in their life. You take a half
a bushel of fresh tomatoes, some vinegar and salt, and a bunch of
expensive sugar and spices. Cook them down for about 6 hours (Careful!
Don't let it burn!) When you're all done, you have a pint or two of
ketchup that's almost as good as the 20 ounce bottle of store-bought
ketchup you could have bought for about $1. HTH :-)

Bob

Ain't that the truth!
We tried our hand at it one year when we had a real glut of tomatoes
but, we ended up with about 12 liters, not one or two pints. And, like
you say, it was almost as good as store bought. The real saving grace
was the fact that a couple of the grandkids liked it better than the
store bought so we were able to unload a bunch.

you lot must either have really excellent supermarket tomato sauce or
really
crap recipes for making it yourself at home. I got a recipe from the guy
across the road this year & made some great tomato suace. Beats the store
bought crap hands down.

rob

I was referring to making ketchup, not tomato sauce. There's a big
difference.

Tomato ketchup - tomato sauce. Never thought there was a difference between
the two. Have a hamburger, a pie or some chips, put the tomato sauce/ketchup
on them. What do you categorise the difference as?

rob


Tomato sauce is just tomatoes, peeled, de-seeded, acidified and
reduced.

Tomato sauce rom NCHFP:

Prepare and press as for making tomato juice. Simmer in large-diameter
saucepan until sauce reaches desired consistency Boil until volume is
reduced by about one-third for thin sauce, or by one-half for thick
sauce. Add bottled lemon juice or citric acid to jars.

For lots more work, Tomato ketchup from NCHFP

* 24 lbs ripe tomatoes
* 3 cups chopped onions
* 3/4 tsp ground red pepper (cayenne)
* 3 cups cider vinegar (5 percent)
* 4 tsp whole cloves
* 3 sticks cinnamon, crushed
* 1-1/2 tsp whole allspice
* 3 tbsp celery seeds
* 1-1/2 cups sugar
* 1/4 cup salt
Wash tomatoes. Dip in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds or until
skins split. Dip in cold water. Slip off skins and remove cores.
Quarter tomatoes into 4-gallon stock pot or a large kettle. Add onions
and red pepper. Bring to boil and simmer 20 minutes, uncovered.
Combine spices in a spice bag and add to vinegar in a 2-quart
saucepan. Bring to boil. Cover, turn off heat and hold tomato mixture
for 20 minutes. Then, remove spice bag and combine vinegar and tomato
mixture. Boil about 30 minutes. Put boiled mixture through a food mill
or sieve. Return to pot. Add sugar and salt, boil gently, and stir
frequently until volume is reduced by one-half or until mixture rounds
up on spoon without separation.

Ross.