Thursday, January 29, 2009

How to make Catsup

THIS IS A REPRINT FROM MY ROB'S WORLD BLOG:
As accustomed as I am to not having original thoughts shut me up on this blog, today I think I will copy Fake Plastic Fish. Yesterday Beth made wonderful mustard and eliminated one more plastic condiment bottle from her clutches. Today I will make Catsup in an effort to eliminate a plastic bottle from mine!
This recipe is from the All Things Frugal site. I unashamedly stole it. First gather your ingredients:
1 Can Tomato Paste
1/4 Cup Water
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon Cumin
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cloves
2 Tablespoons Cider Vinegar



Mix together, cover and refrigerate. (Note the human power mixer I used whereas Beth used an electric blender). *Electric-power consuming Fake Plastique Fish? Fake plastic Fish is really an Electric Eel?




This is how much I got out one batch plus about enough to cover two weenies- Refrigerate and it should keep for a month

The taste of this is very similar to chutney I buy at Trader Joes. Very sweet and good. And while the initial expense of the spices seems far from frugal, I would imagine one could buy them in bulk for a fraction of what I paid. You should also note that keeping in the spirit of FPF, I tried not to buy too many plastic bottle spices- I chose Colman's Dry Mustard (In a tin) and used my Trader Joe's cinnamon (in a glass bottle)- Any way I can now say that i will not buy ketchup in plastic bottles again. Thanks Beth. As far as the frugal goes you use just a small amount of the spices that cost wise it should be good.
*I tease Beth unmercifully in this post. But she is one cool fish, and her campaign against plastic usage is important and sincere. Anything I can do to help reduce plastic waste is always OK by me.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

How big is the can of tomato paste?

Anonymous said...

can't you purchase spices in bulk from a co-op or organic food store? That way you only purchase a small amount and I keep them in small jars from jelly or get baby food jars on Freecycle.org.

Anonymous said...

This is dumb.
What is "one can of tomato paste"?
Is that a metric can?

Anonymous said...

Its a 6 ounce can. look at the first picture and you can judge the relative size of the can as compared to the 2 cup measuring cup and the small bottle of apple cider.

theerd said...

I guess I have the same question as everyone else. Just looking for the can size since it looks like a good recipe. thanks