Ingredients:
10 lb Tomato; totally ripe
1 Bell pepper, red; seeded & chopped
4 lg Onion; chopped
1 1/2 c Vinegar, cider
2 Garlic clove; crushed
1 tsp. Peppercorns
1 tsp. Allspice, whole
1 tsp. Cloves, whole
5 Cinnamon stick
1 tsp. Celery seed
1/2 tbs. Mustard, dry
1/4 tbs Cayenne
4 tbs. Sugar, brown
3 tbs. Sugar, white
1 tsp. Salt
Method:
1-Cut tomatoes in quarters and puree them in
food processor along with bell pepper. Strain
puree through a coarse sieve to remove skins and
seeds. (You can dump the puree into a colander
and work it through with your hands until there
is nothing left in the colander but a dryish
pulp of skins and seeds.)
2-Now puree onions, combine with tomato and
pepper puree, and pour into a large stainless
steel or enameled kettle. Cook and stir
occasionally over low heat until it is reduced
by about a third and is considerably thicker.
3-Meanwhile put garlic, peppercorns, allspice,
cloves, cinnamon, and celery seed into the
vinegar in a small pot and simmer covered for
1/2 hour to steep spices in the vinegar.
Pour about half the spiced vinegar through a tea
strainer into the thickened tomato mixture.
Stir. 4-Also add sugar, mustard, cayenne, and
salt at this point. Here is where the tasting
comes in.
You can adjust any of these ingredients to suit
you. You can add more spiced vinegar. Or a
little plain vinegar. More or less sugar,
mustard, cayenne.
5-Just sort of tinker with it. Cook it some
more, stirring often, until it looks like catsup
should look. Taste and adjust again. You may
notice that it looks slightly curdled. Not to
worry. Hit it a lick in the food processor.
Smooths right out.
6-Pour into sterile jars leaving 1/8" of head
space. Process in a boiling water soak 15
minutes.