Wellie's Tomato Ketchup

[Scottishnewbie]

Thanks for all of above. I am going to make this tonight but just realised that I am confused!! recipe for tom sauce (wellie's) says: Use a wooden spoon to pass the vegetables through a non-metallic seive. Discard the juice

i'm a bit confused about the discard the juice bit! can someone enlighten me please?

many thanks

[Scottishnewbie]

Ummm, I'll try... It's bit 'in-my-head-ish'

Because I loathe skinning tomatoes I either put them through my passata making machine (Passata - Pulp Machine - Ascott Country Kitchen) or, roughly chop them, and cook them down for about half an hour then put them through a sieve.
Then to every jugful of tomato pulp, I put one onion, one stick of celery and a couple of cloves of garlic; soften the onions, celery, garlic in a big pan with nice olive oil, then add the tomatoes and simmer. I usually have a BIG panful (my jam pan!), so; while it's simmering away, I go out and collect fresh herbs; a good handful of marjoram/oregano stems, a couple of stems of rosemary, a handful of thyme sprigs, a few sage leaves, 3 or 4 bay leaves and a bit of lovage (if I didn't have enough celery, I use more lovage...)

De-stem and chop up the herbs (except the bay leaves), mix them up well, then mix them into the tomato sauce,a handful at a time til it looks like you have a good distribution, (any excess gets frozen in a little bag), and chuck in the bay leaves.
When the sauce is starting to reduce down to a nice thickness, I start tasting for seasoning - salt, pepper & sugar! (It really depends on how sweet your tomatoes were in the first place to whether/how much sugar is needed, but there's nothing worse than bitter tomato sauce )
When the sauce is almost the thickness I want, then I cut a handful of basil and tear it into the sauce. Few more minutes cooking, then into sterilised preserving jars (the ones with the twp-part lid).

Now, I process them in a pressure canner, for about 15 - 20mins - because I can. If you haven't got one, I think you need to add ciitric acid because you've lowered the acidity by adding all the onions & celery. I'm not sure of the quantity, or the processing time, so I'll have to look it up, and come back to you

The sauce iin our house is labelled as Dolwixio, coz it makes the kids chuckle

hi Sarah, what size is a "jugful" in your recipe please?

and can i just pop the finished product in freezer bags ans freeze till i need it?

thanks

SN

[Twinsane]

i'm a bit confused about the discard the juice bit! can someone enlighten me please?

hi Sarah, what size is a "jugful" in your recipe please?

and can i just pop the finished product in freezer bags ans freeze till i need it?

I'd like to make this later. Can someone clarify this please? Ta