Tomato Ketchup

     10 lb Tomato; totally ripe
      1    Bell pepper, red; seeded
           -& chopped
      4 lg Onion; chopped
  1 1/2 c  Vinegar, cider
      2    Garlic clove; crushed
      1 ts Peppercorns
      1 ts Allspice, whole
      1 ts Cloves, whole
      5    Cinnamon stick
      1 ts Celery seed
    1/2 t  Mustard, dry
    1/4 ts Cayenne
      4 T  Sugar, brown
      3 T  Sugar, white
      1 ts Salt

  Cut tomatoes in quarters and puree them in food processor along with
  bell pepper. Strain puree through a coarse sieve to remove skins and
  seeds. (You can dump the puree into a colander and work it through
  with your hands until there is nothing left in the colander but a
  dryish pulp of skins and seeds.)  Now puree onions, combine with
  tomato and pepper puree, and pour into a large stainless steel or
  enameled kettle.  Cook and stir occasionally over low heat until it is
  reduced by about a third and is considerably thicker. Meanwhile put
  garlic, peppercorns, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, and celery seed into
  the vinegar in a small pot and simmer covered for 1/2 hour to steep
  spices in the vinegar. Pour about half the spiced vinegar through a
  tea strainer into the thickened tomato mixture.  Stir. Also add sugar,
  mustard, cayenne, and salt at this point.  Here is where the tasting
  comes in.  You can adjust any of these ingredients to suit you.  You
  can add more spiced vinegar.  Or a little plain vinegar.  More or less
  sugar, mustard, cayenne.  Just sort of tinker with it.  Cook it some
  more, stirring often, until it looks like catsup should look. Taste
  and adjust again.  You may notice that it looks slightly curdled.  Not
  to worry.  Hit it a lick in the food processor.  Smooths right out.
  Pour into sterile jars leaving 1/8" of head space.  Process in a
  boiling water bath 15 minutes.

                           -- The Only Texas Cookbook
                              Linda West Eckhardt