I posted a bunch of ketchup recipes to rec.food.recipes a couple of years ago. The post's still on google and I was just going to direct people there, but after looking at the original, decided I'd repost it -- that way the attributions and formatting are still intact (I've given up posting to rfr because the moderators are unable to keep their mitts off the posts and I'm damned tired of finding attributions stripped and recipes reformatted for no good reason). Anyway ...
Here 'tis. Enjoy the novelty, if nothing else. :) -j *****
Please Note: The older recipes in this post (from the American Heritage Cookbook, the Culinary Handbook and the Spice Cookbook) may not conform to today's recommended home canning safety standards. They are included for historical interest and reference only.
***** From The Oxford Companion to Food Ketchup -- A general name for a range of salty, spicy, rather liquid condiments. These belong to the cuisines of the western world, but all are descended from oriental ancestors. The word "ketchup" comes from the Chinese (Amoy dialect) "ketsiap," meaning a fermented fish sauce, probably via the Malay word "kechap," now spelled "kecap," which means "soy sauce." The word was brought back to Europe by Dutch traders who also brought the oriental sauce itself. The sauce has changed far more than has the word, although the name has appeared in a large number of variations such as catchup and catsup.
Tomato ketchup is the best known and almost the only ketchup left nowadays although formerly there were many different kinds, the only common features being their salty taste, their concentrated texture, and the fact that they kept well. Although tomato ketchup contains and indeed tastes principally of sugar and vinegar, mushroom ketchup contains neither, and is nothing other than a salted mushroom extract, differing also from tomato ketchup in its liquid transparent consistency. C.Ann Wilson (1973) believes that mushroom ketchup was the first kind in Britain; people used to pickle mushrooms, intending to use the mushrooms, but then started using the pickle too, and finally took to using the pickle by itself.
Oysters, mussels, walnuts, and many other ingredients have been used to make ketchup, and could be blended with spices, garlic or onions, wines, and spirits to vary the flavour. Stobart (1980) cites from the 19th century a host of ketchups including oyster, mussel, Windermere (mushrooms and horseradish), wolfram (beer, anchovies, mushrooms), and pontac (elderberries).
***** From the American Heritage Cookbook credited to Mrs. Samuel Whitehorne, "Sugar House Book," 1801 Collection of Newport Historical Society
Get them quite ripe on a dry day, squeeze them with your hands till reduced to a pulp, then put half a pound of fine salt to one hundred tomatoes, and boil them for two hours. Stir them to prevent burning. While hot press them through a fine sieve, with a silver spoon till nought but the skin remains, then add a little mace, 3 nutmegs, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, ginger and pepper to taste. Boil over a slow fire till quite thick, stir all the time. Bottle when cold. One hundred tomatoes will make four or five bottles and keep good for two or three years.
***** The Frugal Gourmet's Culinary Handbook (based on Charles Fellows' Culinary Handbook, published in 1904)
Anchovy Catsup -- Anchovies, onions, whole cloves, mace, peppers and ginger, sugar and old ale, brought to a quick boil, then slowly simmered till done, strained through a hair sieve, cooled, walnut catsup added; bottled for use. Sorry, no recipe for walnut catsup supplied.
Cucumber Ketchup -- Large cucumbers peeled and cored, then grated; to each gallon of pulp after being drained, is mixed half a gallon of cider vinegar, two teaspoonfuls of red pepper, eight teaspoonfuls of salt, and one pine of fresh grated horseradish; when thoroughly incorporated it is bottled and sealed.
Mushroom Catsup -- Fresh mushrooms wiped (not washed) and placed into crocks in layers till full, each layer being well sprinkled with salt; when full, cover with a folded cloth and stand in a warm place for 24 hours, then mash and strain through a very coarse towel or sack; to each gallon of the liquor thus obtained add a quarter of a pound of whole peppers and simmer for half an hour, then add one ounce of whole cloves, one ounce of whole allspice, two ounces of bruised ginger and half an ounce of whole mace, simmer for another half hour, then remove from fire; when cold, strain through a jelly bag, bottle, cork and seal.
***** From The Spice Cookbook Spiced Cranberry Catsup 1 pound fresh cranberries 1/4 cup cider vinegar 3/4 cup water 1-3/4 cups light brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves 1 teaspoon paprika 1/8 teaspoon salt
Wash cranberries and place in a saucepan with vinegar, water and sugar. Cover, bring to boiling point, and boil 8 to 10 minutes, or only until cranberries are soft. Put through a coarse sieve, pushing as much of the cranberries through as possible. Add remaining ingredients and stir and cook 10 to 12 minutes or until mixture has thickened. Cool. Cover and store in the refrigerator until ready to use. Or, if desired, double this recipe, turn into sterilized 1/2 pint jars and seal airtight. Yield: 2 cups.
***** From Preserving Today Mushroom Ketchup Makes about 2 cups This may seem like a lot of mushrooms for a little sauce, but you need not waste the chopped mushrooms that you strain out before bottling the ketchup. They may be used to make duxelles, a coarse puree of mushrooms and onions to use as a seasoning in sauces, soups and stews. The dried oriental mushrooms called for really enhance the flavor. This recipe is adapted from Angus Cameron's recipe in The LL Bean Game & Fish Cookbook, by Mr. Cameron and Judith Jones.
2 ounces dried oriental mushrooms 1 cup very hot water 1-1/4 pounds cultivated mushrooms 2 tablespoons salt 1/4 cup each cider vinegar and tawny port 1/4 teaspoon each of ground allspice, ground mace, ground nutmeg, and black pepper Pinch of ground cloves 1 inch anchovy paste from a tube (optional) 2 dashes Angostura bitters
Place the dried mushrooms in a small bowl or a 1-quart canning jar, cover with the water, weight with a saucer or an empty jar to keep the mushrooms submerged, and let stand 30 minutes, until they are soft. Lift out the mushrooms with a slotted spoon, pour the soaking water through a paper coffee filter set in a strainer over a jar or deep bowl, and reserve. With scissors, cut the soaked mushrooms into pieces, discarding the stems, which are tough. Then, wash the cultivated mushrooms under cold running water and set them on a double layer of paper towels to drain. Transfer both kinds of mushrooms (half or quarter the cultivated variety if they are large) to the workbowl of a food processor, in batches if necessary, and pulse/chop fine; do not liquefy. Transfer the mixture to a 1-quart refrigerator container, stir in the salt, cover tightly and refrigerate for 2 or 3 days, stirring occasionally. Then, drain the mushrooms in a fine-meshed strainer set over a deep bowl, pushing with a wooden spoon to extract as much liquid as possible. Place a handful of the chopped mushrooms at a time in a large white cotton handkerchief and twist it over the strainer to obtain still more liquid; set the solids aside to make duxelles. When you have wrung out as much liquid as possible, pour it through a paper coffee filter (do not reuse the first one) set in a strainer over a 1-1/2 quart saucepan; add the reserved filtered liquid from the oriental mushrooms, and all remaining ingredients, and boil, uncovered, about 30 minutes. Pour into hot, sterilized bottles, cover, and cool. Label and refrigerate for immediate use; freeze for long-term storage. Shake before using to mix in the sediment that settles during storage.
Green Tomato and Horseradish Sauce Makes about 6 cups Sometimes old recipes can be misleading, as I learned the first time I made this sauce. It was overcooked and oversalted. And no wonder! The original recipe, in a book published almost a century ago in Canada, called for day-long cooking and a whole cup of salt! But I liked the combination of ingredients, so I worked out a version that cooks in an hour. It is particularly good with boiled fresh (or smoked) tongue and almost any kind of grilled fish.
1 pound green tomatoes 1/2 pound green bell peppers 1 pound onions 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon coarse (kosher) salt, or 2 tablespoons uniodized salt or pickling salt 1 cup sugar 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 2-1/2 cups cider vinegar 2 6-ounce bottles prepared horseradish packed in vinegar, or about 1 cup grated fresh horseradish
Core the tomatoes, stem and seed the green peppers, and peel the onions. cut the tomatoes and onions into chunks, and pulse/chop all three vegetables in a food processor to a coarse texture. Transfer the prepared vegetables to a 1-1/2 quart bowl (not aluminum), stir in the salt, and let stand 8 hours or longer. Drain, rinse, and drain again. Place the vegetable mixture in a wide 2-1/2 or 3-quart saucepan, add the sugar, spices, and vinegar, and simmer about 1 hour, or until thick, stirring occasionally. Add the horseradish during the last 5 minutes or cooking. Ladle, boiling hot, into hot, sterilized jars, seal, cool, label, and store a week or two before serving. This recipe is easily halved.
Green Tomato Ketchup Makes about 5-1/2 cups Maine's seafaring families undoubtedly developed a taste for ketchup when sea captains returning from voyages to Asia brought word of a spicy condiment the Chinese called koechiap or ketsiap, and the Malaysians called kechap or kechup. Imitations of these sauces (or condiments, if you prefer) began appearing in the seventeenth century -- imitations made with cucumbers or walnuts or mushrooms, and later, tomatoes from the Americas. The oriental ketchups were based on fish brine with herbs and spices, and versions of this are still in use today throughout Southeast Asia. My version is based on an old American recipe devised by a Pennsylvanian to use up green tomatoes that had to be harvested before the first frost. It is both peppery and fruity. The tomato, apple, and onion combination makes it a good relish to serve with everything from hamburgers to pork and ham roasts. If the yield is too much for your household, the recipe is easily halved. It also freezes well.
1 pound onions 1 pound green tomatoes 1 pound tart green apples 1-1/2 tablespoons coarse (kosher) salt, or 1 tablespoon uniodized salt or pickling salt 2 cups white vinegar 1/2 teaspoon each hot red (cayenne) pepper, ground cloves, and ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground mace 2 teaspoons ground mustard 1/4 cup sugar Green vegetable coloring (optional)
Peel the onions and tomatoes and slice thinly in a food processor. Peel and core the apples and slice thin in a food processor. Layer the onions, tomatoes, and apples in a 1-1/2 or 2-quart bowl (not aluminum); sprinkle each layer with some of the salt. Let stand about 12 hours, or overnight.
The next day, drain well, and puree the mixture in a food processor. Place all the ingredients except the food coloring in a wide 4-quart saucepan. Bring quickly to a boil, stirring once or twice. Boil steadily about 30 minutes, or until mixture is almost as thick as bottled tomato ketchup. It will thicken more as it cools. Add the vegetable coloring, if desired. Ladle into hot sterilized jars, seal, cool, label and store at least 1 month before using.
If you had to chooseFollowing up to my own post· Thanks for all the kind responses, and to answer the few who asked why the question... We are (mostly) all foodies here, with expansive but often very selective...
