Ketchup!

OK, this time I didn't forget about the seeds!  Yay!

Private #2 really wanted us to make ketchup, so ketchup it is.  Here are some photos I took during the process.

We did a small batch, so we needed six pounds of tomatoes from our garden.

You have to get the skins off and the seeds and cores out.  You get a pot of water boiling and put the tomatoes in it. 

After a bit of time, the skin will split open.  Sometimes (on the smaller tomatoes, usually) the skin doesn't split.  That's fine, just leave them in there for roughly a minute or so then take them out and put them in a colander or a bowl to cool off.  Save this pot of water.  Some of the nutrients from the tomatoes will be in the water and your houseplants (or any other plants) will love it after it's cooled to room temperature.

After that I peeled them.  The skin comes off VERY easily (like pull it with your fingers easy) after having been in the boiling hot water.  I then cored them and tried to get all of the seeds out.  I admit I did not get every single seed.  The kids won't die, they like tomatoes, they probably won't notice.  I probably got 98% of them, close enough for me.  I ran the tomato pieces in the blender on the liquefy setting just to make sure there were no tomato piece blobs.

Then it goes in a pot to thicken.

I'm sure you won't be surprised at all to know that I got busy and forgot to take a picture where I added the spices, vinegar and sugar.  It looked like the above picture only a bit darker and thicker.  Sorry!

After it was done cooking I processed it in a water bath for 40 minutes.  

Ketchup!

The kids all tried it and deemed it yummy.  The recipe said you'd get five pints of ketchup but, as you can see, I ended up with 2 pints, 2 full jelly jars and (in the refrigerator) a 1/2 full jelly jar full of ketchup.  

Now I can no longer say I've never made ketchup!