What you think of when you hear the word Ketchup? Tomato Ketchup right?

Tomato Ketchup
Now the girls have a much more varied acceptance of table condiments. I remember the times when they used to live to eat and drink “ssaauce”. Everything got a shower of ssaauce rice, chapatti, bread, fries. If they got a chance they would have lived in the bottle of the sauce.
However, Tomato sauce or Ketchup is served with about anything that is hot from French fries, hamburgers, hot sandwiches, hot dogs, cooked eggs, and grilled or fried meat.
If that is not enough Ketchup is sometimes used as a base or as an ingredient in to make sauces and dressings.
Do you know eating tomatoes raw was not considered safe? However, they were okay with tomato sauce.
Making Ketchup at home is very simple but time-consuming. The seasoning can vary from recipe to recipe but the main ingredients are tomatoes, sugar, vinegar, salt, spices and seasonings. Common seasonings are onions, allspice, coriander, cloves, cumin, garlic, mustard and sometimes celery, cinnamon or ginger.
Generally, tomato ketchup is preserved with a preservative sodium benzoate. Naturally, when you are making a sauce from about 5 kgs of tomatoes your yield will be roughly about 4 to 4 ¼ kgs by weight. Hence the preservative! In case you do not want to use the preservative use well-sterilised glass jars and make lesser quantities and refrigerate.
A word of caution the sauce is poured boiling hot into the glass bottles the glass will crack if they are not dry. Also, place the jars on a wooden board and do not remove from the board till the sauce cools down completely.
I have made this sauce out of 7 huge tomatoes ( about a Kilo of tomatoes) my yield was about 2 cups and I have not used sodium benzoate. However, I have included it in my recipes below you can skip it. This happens to be the recipe from my mother's cookbook!
Serve with bhajiya, sandwiches, dosa, tikki, and cutlets....
The other sauces that I have tried are Homemade Chipotle Sauce, Mutabal|Moutabel Recipe.

Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
- 7 Tomatoes roughly chopped
- 2 Onions roughly chopped
- 6 Garlic cloves roughly chopped
- 1 Inch Ginger peeled and chopped
- 100 Grams Sugar
- 15 Grams Salt
- 2-3 Tablespoon Red Chilli powder
- 2 Grams Spice powder notes below
- 2 Tablespoons Vinegar
- ¼ Teaspoon Sodium Benzoate optional
Instructions
- Cook the tomatoes, onion, garlic and ginger till the tomatoes are mushy. Cool completely.
- Grind the tomato paste in the blender and then strain it through a soup strainer.
- Add the tomato paste, sugar, salt, spice powder,red chilli powder.
- Cook till the mixture thicken add the vinegar. (Be careful as the mixture will spurt.)
- The sauce is done when the mixture boils in the centre.
- Remove from the heat and add soduim benzoate mixed in water (if using).
- Place the sterilised and dried bottles on a wooden board and add the sauce in the bottles. Let the sauce cool on the wooden board else the bottles will crack.
Spice Powder:
- Dry roast and grind the cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, jeera and pepper.
kalyani says
this is a good condiment I would like to make - arent ketchup and sauce a little different although most of us (incl me) use it interchangeably...
ArchanaPotdar says
There is a slight difference Kalyani. I always find the store bought ketchup sweeter.
Sharmila - The Happie Friends Potpourri Corner says
Good bye store bought Sauce.. Hello homemade sauce!! Lovely Share Archana!!
Priya vj says
Home made sauce..yumm...safe without added preservatives.
Vaishali says
Yes this is one condiment which was my favourite too , we used to make in bulk . Over the years the consumption has gone down , but I would definitely love to make it , the sauce looks so vibrant , with excellent texture .
Srivalli Jetti says
Very nice and good one to make it at home...and I guess it's a phase where all of us are addicted to this and let it go slowly!
Gayathri Kumar says
Same pinch Archana. Even I have made tomato sauce for today's post. Your version looks so yum..
Amara says
Yummy sauce Archana.
Priya Suresh says
Excellent sauce nothing can beat this home made sauce na.
Harini says
Making sauces at home is the best!
PJ says
My kids can live on a bottle of tomato sauce but I rarely give them a little!! Home made is the best and when in season, I might try this recipe.Good one Archana
Sowmya says
My daughter is now in the 'living inside the ketchup bottle' stage. Thanks for this wonderful recipe...have to try it asap!
Pavani says
Homemade sauce can never be beat. That looks delicious.