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 ts Peppercorns
1 ts Allspice, whole
1 ts Cloves, whole
5 Cinnamon stick
1 ts Celery seed
1/2 t Mustard, dry
1/4 ts Cayenne
4 T Sugar, brown
3 T Sugar, white
1 ts Salt
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.) 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. 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. 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. 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.
Pour into sterile jars leaving 1/8" of head space. Process in a
boiling water bath 15 minutes.
-- The Only Texas Cookbook
Linda West Eckhardt
per Sam Waring
MMMMM
