I like Heinz Ketchup, although as a good Dutch girl I really love mayonaise with my frietjes (fries). I ones visited the Heinz factory as a student and I really liked the fact that their products taste good and do not contain much of the awful additives you can do without.

But there is something very rewarding about making your own condiments. So why not try and make my own ketchup? This is going to be a bit of a trial and error process, trying to get as close as possible to the original. Or maybe discovering something even better and take over the world! Yeah right, dream on and get off of that cloud. First up for trying is a recipe I got from a friend some years ago. I found it going through my enormous pile of ‘also want to try’ recipes. I love the ingredients list, I have a feeling it’s going to be great. And the tomatoes are really asking for it…

How to make your own ketchup
Wash and quarter the tomatoes. Put tomatoes with the other ingredients in a large pan and slowly bring to a boil. Cook for about 20 minutes. Put through a sieve and then on to a clean pan and reduce on low heat for 15 minutes.Taste and add some salt, honey or vinegar if needed. Put in sterilised jars and leave to cool. Put a label with the production date on the jars, because time goes fast and you tend to forget when you made what…

This recipe, with a good balance of fresh, sweet and sour and the use of honey instead of sugar, works really well. It’s different from the Heinz taste, but close enough to definitely recognize it as ketchup. My first homemade ketchup. Not bad at all! I can recommend this ketchup recipe wholeheartedly and I can’t wait to taste it myself on macaroni or a home made chicken burger.

Other tomato ketchup recipes I would like to try:

American ketchup recipe from epicurious
BBC Food ketchup recipe by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Green tomato ketchup