Making Homemade Catsup

Yesterday I used some of the fresh tomatoes to make a batch of catsup.  I chopped them up and put them in a large pot with a chopped onion and a large red pepper.

Once these were soft I ran it all through the tomato press.

I had found two quite different recipes for catsup and they called for different spices.  I wanted to use what I had on hand so finding recipes with different spices in them allowed me the freedom to experiment a bit with something I had never made before.  I used dried mustard because I didn't have mustard seed.  Lovage seeds from my Lovage plant and some stems off my celery plant in place of celery seed, bay leaves just because, cinnamon instead of cinnamon stick and then garlic, cloves and peppercorns.

The pressed sauce went back in the pot with all the spices and simmered until thick and reduced. 

I ran it through the press twice more after a phone call from a friend where she mentioned that this would make it super smooth and shiny.  I added some sugar, salt and vinegar and cooked it down some more.

And then, since it had been brought to my attention and all of a sudden I wanted it super smooth, I zipped it up with my hand blender and got it even  smoother.

It turned out to be gorgeous.  Pure deliciousness...and I don't even like store-bought catsup.

Even S, who is quite particular about catsup and insists on buying a particular brand name catsup, was delighted with it when he tasted it last night.