I was always intimidated by the ketchup recipe in Nourishing Traditions. And I thought, ‘why make my own ketchup? That’s weird!’. Well since I am committed to making EVERY recipe in the book I decided to try this one, and I’m so glad I did!
Tomato ketchup is from what I can tell from my research, an American invention. However, it evolved from Asian and Indian versions of fish sauce added to vegetable pastes. Tomatoes were not the original vegetable used, it was actually a variety of whatever was available locally, including mushrooms. The ketchup (or catsup) we are familiar with today actually originated in the US in about 1813 in a recipe book. Heinz started producing their ketchup in 1876.
I have always LOVED ketchup but didn’t love that my favorite and the most popular brand in the world uses high fructose corn syrup. I had switched to an organic brand, but the price is twice as high. Plus, no matter what brand you buy on the shelf, you are not getting the benefit of lacto-fermentation.
This recipe is a great combination of beneficial bacteria from lacto-fermentation, sweetness and a good price. What more can you ask for? It’s a great way to get lacto-fermented food into your kids!
Tips for great homemade ketchup:
- I buy the huge industrial sized can of organic tomato paste when I’m going to make this, it makes it even cheaper. The extra tomato paste I freeze in half cup portions in small plastic bags.
- I didn’t make the fish sauce from scratch, but I had some on hand. The fish sauce is the key to making good ketchup that tastes like the ‘normal’ stuff! It’s not expensive to buy one large bottle if you go to an Asian market.
- When you make this it will be quite thick. Ferment the thick ketchup in mason jars, but then thin down the ketchup with the tomato juice or water, and put it in a cleaned out brand name ketchup squeeze bottle. Your family will never know the difference!
- Using the thick ketchup is fine though if you’re not trying to fool anyone and if you don’t mind using a spoon to get your ketchup out of the jar. Just remember it will be slightly stronger tasting than the brand name ketchup so you won’t need to use as much as you’re used to.
- You don’t have to wait to use the ketchup (I threw some in a meatloaf immediately) but of course waiting the 3 days will make the raw product lacto-fermented.
Ketchup
Rating: 4 forks (key)
Difficulty:
Easy
Page in NT: 104
Yield & Notes:
- Makes 1 quart
Ingredients:
3 cups canned organic tomato paste
1/4 cup whey
1/2 cup grade B maple syrup
1 T sea salt (not the iodized stuff, or you’ll need to use less)
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
3 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed [TNC: I used 1 teaspoon organic garlic powder]
1/2 cup fish sauce
Preparation:
Mix all ingredients until well blended. Place in a quart-sized, wide-mouth mason jar. The top of the ketchup should be at least 1 inch below the top of the jar. Leave at room temperature for about 2 days before transferring to the refrigerator. Thin down with tomato juice or water as needed.
Photo courtesy of urbanfoodie33 on Flickr
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{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey, thanks for the thinning it out tip, I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.
I do like it with the fish sauce. My son can’t stand the smell of it but he doesn’t notice it in the ketchup. It is key for rounding out the flavor though, I agree.
It gets much thicker over time as well. Which turns out to be good for a meatloaf sandwich spread.
Keep up the great work on this blog! It’s a great idea and I am enjoying it. I want try the ketchup recipe ans was wondering what brand of fish sauce you used? I am having trouble finding one that doesn’t have MSG in it.
thanks Jin! I believe it’s thai kitchen brand… it is organic fish sauce. We have quite a big asian market here so I bought a large bottle for what a small bottle costs in the regular store. If all else fails, there is a recipe in Nourishing Traditions for the fish sauce, but I have not tried it yet. Probably won’t for awhile because I will use up what I have, then will do that recipe… thanks for your comment, I agree that MSG in the sauce is not good…
Thanks for the wonderful blog. My family is following your progress and trying some of the 3 and 4 star recipes. With the scare about BPA I am concerned about using canned tomato paste and old ketchup bottles though. We will begin making our own tomato paste and ketchup this summer. Good luck and thanks again for all your effort.
I really appreciate this post! Thank you for making the NT ketchup seem “approachable.”
Gordie… good point on the BPA in cans, I have done some reading on that. I have heard that there are some brands of organic tomato paste that are available in jars. This may be a good alternative to the cans if you’re worried and want to do this recipe before summertime…
Debbie… thanks no problem! It was easier and more successful than I thought it would be, which is always good!
So glad you’re undertaking this blog, to help many of us revisit NT recipes we may have passed over! I early on skipped this one, now I don’t remember why–maybe I thought I wouldn’t be able to find fish sauce? Anyway, I’ve had fish sauce in my fridge for some time now, and your post made me realize I can easily make this recipe! Perfect solution for my morning eggs, which I can only really get down with some ketchup.
This is one of recipes I have not tried yet. I guess the fish sauce intimidated me, but no longer! I need to make it since every time we use the organic kind I don’t enjoy it so much due to the guilt about the price and the “I should be making this” feeling.
You are inspiring me to try the ketchup recipe again. I made a plum chutney last summer that is basically a ketchup made with plums instead of tomatoes so that is filling all my ketchupy needs. Good to know your family likes this though!
What a treat to find your blog!! I just wanted to jump in and say I made quite a bit of the NT ketchup this past summer when we had an abundance of tomatoes and did NOT use the fish sauce. (We live in small town America and I didn’t want to wait for a trip to ‘the big city’ LOL), but it spite of that, it turned out amazingly good!
How tight do you keep the lid on during the initial 2 days of fermentation? It seems like some things ferment better with a loose seal, and others require a tight seal? I’ve yet to grasp the rhyme or reason behind this…
Hi Elise… I just use the two part mason jar lids and just tighten by hand, not super tight but not loose. For the ketchup I didn’t even have to ‘burp’ the jars or anything. For sauerkraut I do let it air out and then close it up once a day or so (my girls are grossed out when I say ‘I have to burp the jars!’)…
Hi,
I have been making the ketchup from Nourishing Traditions for about two years now. I use the Bionature tomatoe paste which is sold in jars. I found that anchovy sauce is the only fish sauce that I could find that does not contain sugar so that’s what I use. It can be found in the oriental market. The end result is delicious. I leave my ketchup in the mason jar and serve it with a spoon. That way when it’s almost gone you can scrape out every last drop with a spatula. It is really great to know that every time we use it we are improving our digestion since it is full of live enzymes. The whey really does a good job at preserving it. I highly recommend using it in the Nourishing Traditions meatloaf recipe. It is fantastic.
Love NT book and glad to find your site. I have a son that is not able to digest milk proteins because of his gluten intolerance. I do not know if this includes whey protein or not so we have stopped lacto fermented foods in our diet. Do you know or can you direct me to a source concerning whey and milk proteins? And is there a substitution for whey in NT recipes? I have seen cultured coconut milk in Kefir in Whole Fooods any idea of how extract the whey? Looking forward to following your work.
Thank you in advance.
I made this without the fish sauce because I couldn’t find any that I was 100% sure was msg free. Nevertheless, it came out good! I think it will take some getting used to, yet it’s edible. I’m not big on the maple syrup taste, so I might eliminate that next time and see how it turns out.
Fish sauce? really? Is fish sauce in regular store bought ketchup? The reason I ask is because I am highly allergic to many fish items.
Hi Chelle… I just looked on a few bottles that I have my homemade ketchup in, and it’s hard to tell exactly what they put in there because it says ‘spices’ and ‘natural flavorings’. The anchovy or fish sauce is what makes ketchup taste like ketchup, but the commercial brands may have a non-fish flavoring that does that now. Traditionally it was the fish though. Although I’ve heard people making this recipe without the fish sauce and they still like it. Maybe add a bit of garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper for added flavor, and a bit more sea salt. thanks for your question!
Got it in the hopper…with 2 more days to go. Thanks for the very helpful blog! This site will stay on my daily screen !
I’ve made this many times now and the whole family loves it… a local supermarket has their own label of organic tomato paste in cans that are bpa free which really helps out. When I don’t have any fish sauce I just use worchestire sauce diluted in some water.. it comes out great!
I made this when I first got the NT and my family totally revolted. They are ketchup fanatics and I often accuse them of just drinking it out of the bottle. It was thick, strong, and kinda fishy. I saw the above listed tip of cutting it with tomatoe juice. Good tip. I might try this again if I can sneak it past the family.
Allen… yes that exact thing happened to me… until I thinned it and they were none the wiser! It was important that it come out of the squeeze bottle correctly. lol
Hi, can you recommend an alternative to using whey for fermenting it? My friend has a casein allergy.
Thanks
Hi there. Just wondering if you have made it or can make it from scratch using sauce tomatoes and pureeing instead of canned tomato paste. thanks heaps
that would be difficult with this recipe… but possible. You’d have to boil down the tomatoes into a thick paste consistency. In my opinion that is more for the taste than the thickness, since I like to add water at the end. But the end result won’t be as strong. I say try a small batch and see how it goes… and let us know on here of course!
@Kim & Others
Can someone please advise me on homemade fish sauce. I made some several days ago in a jar where the lid kept popping off. I fermented it for 3 days and it has now been in the fridge for 4 days and it tastes incredibly bitter. I was just wondering if this is normal at this stage of the process or is it a bad batch and I have to start over again?
Why bother with fish sauce? I assure you that Heinz does not use fish sauce in their Tomato Ketchup, and honestly, it’s really not necessary. Use it if you like it. Personally, I love fish sauce, but I don’t want it in my ketchup! In my Worcestershire, yes. In my ketchup, no.
For a starter culture, rather than using whey, if the dairy nature of it is a concern, and rather than using the extremely expensive commercially-available starter cultures, simply add a bit of brine from a batch of pickled veggies. A couple of tablespoons of brine from a batch of well-pickled carrots works nicely for me.
I have noticed, however, that for the best ketchup-y flavor, as most people conceive of ketchup, it is a good idea to balance out the lactic acid with a bit of acetic acid by adding a couple of tablespoons of a lightly flavored vinegar, like sugar cane vinegar, after my ketchup has been fermenting for about two weeks. I find the combination of the lactic acid flavor and the acetic acid flavor more pleasing than the lactic acid alone.
Sherry vinegar is another nice flavor with tomatoes. I also make my own Salsa Brava, which is a Spanish condiment sauce that is akin to ketchup, but spicier. Many people make Salsa Brava from ketchup, but really, that’s not traditional.
I leave the vinegar out of my ketchup at the start so i can judge how the fermentation is coming along by the increasing sourness. This generally takes 7-14 days at room temp, then I add the vinegar, mix thoroughly, and put it in the refrigerator. I serve mine usually by spooning some into a serving dish, to make sure the kids don’t inadvertently contaminate the whole batch by touching the serving spoon to their food.
My ketchup takes this long to sour, I think, because I like to make it about 3.8% saline, or 40 grams of salt per 1000 kg of other ingredients. Heinz runs about 3.6% saline, and this amounts to about 15 g of salt in a 14 oz bottle (or jar, I make up batches of about 400 g from one standard 6 oz. can of tomato paste each, which fit almost perfectly into a Ball wide mouth “pint” jar).
It’s hard to judge the salinity of the NT recipe, because it doesn’t specify which brand of fish sauce. The Thai brand I currently have in the house is about 17% saline, but YMMV. I recommend adding the salt last once you have a firm weight on the rest of the ingredients in order that you can make a precise calculation of salinity.
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I just made this one and have to say I’m a pretty disappointed with it. It tastes too much like tomato paste for me. In fact I’m going to freeze it and just use it in recipes calling for paste.