6 lbs firm ripe tomatoes 

⅓ cup pickling spice mix

2 cups finely chopped onions

1 ½ teaspoons of good quality sea salt

1 tablespoon finely chopped hot peppers

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

1 ½ cups brown sugar

½ teaspoon cayenne (optional)

1 ½ cups distilled white vinegar

Wash, core and cut the tomatoes into quarters, or eighths for large tomatoes. Place all the ingredients into a 6 –8 quart enameled, glass or stainless steel pan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir until sugar dissolves. Lower heat to keep mixture simmering. Leave pan uncovered until thick enough to spatter. Stir often, to prevent sticking. If you can’t stay at the stove, then partially cover and reduce heat to the lowest setting. The catsup should be thick enough to hold it’s shape in the spoon. It should be thicker than commercial catsup, but not as thick as tomato paste.

Cool and process about a cup of the catsup at a time in a blender at high speed, until smooth. Or, press the catsup through a food mill or through a fine sieve, pressing with the back of a spoon to extract as much pulp and juice as possible. Discard the large pieces of pulp and spices remaining in the sieve.

Cool and cover tightly. Refrigerate until ready to use. Stored tightly covered, the catsup will keep safely for about one month.

Alternately, Anine makes 6 times this recipe. She "cans" the catsup in canning jars and "water-bath" processes the pint jars for 30 minutes. Half-pint jars are processed for 20 minutes, and quart jars for 45 minutes. If you are unfamiliar with the canning process, refer to the "Ball Blue Book" or Kerr guides to home canning for processing instructions.

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