Miscellaneous Homemade Recipes
Catsups
A catsup is something pulped and preserved with some combination of salt, vinegar, spices, and sugar. It can be made out of tomatoes, or peaches. The consistency is the key. It is a cooked, strained fruit that is spiced and made to a thick sauce. Home made tomato catsup isn't as red as the store kind you are use to, and some home made type had a lot of tomato seeds.
Making homemade catsup was a time consuming task. Usually several women would work together, and share the proceeds. Wash and slice a peck (about 12 1/2 pounds) of ripe red tomatoes. The redder the better for good color. Boil some water for skinning the tomatoes. The tomatoes were immersed into the water a few at a time for about a minute until the skin will easily peel off. Take off the skin and stem ends and section the tomatoes.
Boil all the tomatoes about 15 minutes until soft. Slice two average sized onions and cook them in another pan until soft. Put tomatoes through a sieve to pulp them and remove the seeds. Put the onions through the sieve to pulp them and add to the pulped and sieved tomatoes. Add 1/4 tsp of cayene pepper and boil the tomatoes until they are reduced by half.
While your tomatoes are cooking, prepare your vinegar. Pour two cups cider vinegar into an enamel pan. Make a spice bag out of a hankerchief or small square of cotton cloth, and put into the center of your cloth, 1 1/2 tablespoons broken up stick cinnamon, 1 tablespoon of whole cloves, and three cloves of garlic. Immerce the spice bag in the vinegar and cook slowly for half an hour, cover and leave the spice bag in until needed.
When the tomato pulp is reduced by one half, remove the spice bag from the vinegar, measure 1 1/4 cup of the vinegar mixture, and combine with the tomato pulp. More can be added if needed. Add 1 cup of sugar, 2 1/2 teaspoons of salt, and 1 tablespoon of paprika. If you feel the sauce is too thin, boil the tomatoes longer until you are satisfied with the consistency. Other wise just boil 10 additional minutes and pour while boiling hot into pasterized sterilized canning jars and seal.
Apple Catsup
Peel and quarter a dozen sound tart apples. Stew them until soft in as little water as possible. Sieve them. For every quart of sieved apples, add 1/2 cup of sugar, one teaspoon of pepper, one teaspoon of cloves, one teaspoon of mustard, two teaspoons cinnamon, two medium onions chopped very fine, one tablespoon of salt and two cups of vinegar. This would also be canned in pasterized sterilized canning jars.
People used plums, or currants or any good fruit crop that was abundant and liked by the family. It was a way to use up vast amounts of fruit and save it for a time later when fruit was not available. It added flavor to sometimes otherwise dry meats.
Uncooked Catsup
This will keep, even without sealing. It doesn't have to be refrigerated. You mix it without cooking, put it into a jar and store in a cool dry place. It takes two quarts of peeled, chopped or ground tomatoes which are ripe. 4 tablespoons of ground or chopped onions, 1 3/4 cups celery cut in very small pieces, 1 tablespoon grated nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 tablespoon of cayene pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves, 6 tablespoons sugar, 4 tablespoons salt, 6 tablespoons mustard seeds, and 1 3/4 cups vinegar.
I liked this peppery flavored sauce. It is rather like the chili sauce of today.
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