# Does Anyone Can Their Condiments?



## katlupe (Nov 15, 2004)

I am wondering if anyone here cans their own condiments? Such as mustard, ketchup, hot sauces, etc. And do you think it is cost efficient to do that? I would like to cut my food bill down and was thinking of making my own. I don't know if my own would be as good as I have never made them before.

katlupe


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## bare (May 10, 2002)

I make a lot of stuff from scatch, but I think it would be hard to save by trying to make your own basic stuff like ketchup.

If you want to save money, check out your market for bulk stuff. I can get #10 cans of ketchup for about $2.50-3.50 depending on brand. Yellow mustard is similarly priced, though I much prefer my own varieties made from mustard powder purchase bulk. I just picked up a gallon of Kikkoman soy sauce for 4.50 and a gallon of worchester for about the same price. 

I can use all of them to make other stuff.


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## nduetime (Dec 15, 2005)

I make a few things of my own. I like my ketchup better so I make it and can it, I also make my own chocolate sauce, pancake syrup, powdered flavored coffee creamers, and of course all my own jams and jellies. If you like your own better it is cost effective and really I don't think I spend that much more on making my own of anything except maybe the ketchup, all the other stuff is cheaper to make yourself.
hillbillyhousewife.com has alot of recipes and I google make my own ..... whatever alot too.or google how to make..... Good luck.


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## susieM (Apr 23, 2006)

nduetime said:


> I make a few things of my own. I like my ketchup better so I make it and can it, I also make my own chocolate sauce, pancake syrup, powdered flavored coffee creamers, and of course all my own jams and jellies. If you like your own better it is cost effective and really I don't think I spend that much more on making my own of anything except maybe the ketchup, all the other stuff is cheaper to make yourself.
> hillbillyhousewife.com has alot of recipes and I google make my own ..... whatever alot too.or google how to make..... Good luck.


Could you post the recipes, please?


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## Lucy (May 15, 2006)

You can make the homemade ketchup and can it, but no way to can mayonnaise . I know people who tried it, and it was a major disgusting mess. They showed pictures. It all seperated and the oil was floating. 
Things with oil and eggs are not normally safe to can. Only a few recipes contain oil that are safe to can. The only one I know of with eggs is a fairly new one for canning lemon curd. 
I am not sure it is cost effective to can ketchup, considering all the time you put into it, plus the cost of ingredients. Those gallon cans of ketchup are cheap from warehouse stores.


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## bare (May 10, 2002)

I wonder how they do salad dressing and mayo at the factory. I buy salad dressing by the case in gallon plastic bottles and it keeps seemingly forever. I've never had any go bad and it's just stored at room temperature.


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## kentuckyhippie (May 29, 2004)

I make my own hot sauce type stuff by putting hot red peppers and a little cider vinegar in the blender and liquifying them because we like the pepper taste on almost everything and its a good way to use up extra peppers.


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## unregistered5595 (Mar 3, 2003)

I used to work at a food processing place and I also wondered how they made the mayo so it didn't spoil in one gallon plastic jars. They did use eggs and vinegar and oil and processed it. (Huge vats of it, in fact) I talked with the people in the lab and everything had to be tested regularly to make sure that the acid level was high enough and all the ingredients separately and together were not exposed to bacteria (the air or machinery). Then they put it in jars in vaccuum sealed it and it would keep for a year as long as air was not introduced. So it is not 'canned' per se...it's sealed. That's about all I know about it. ~Feather


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## bare (May 10, 2002)

Huh, you got my curiosity up so I went and looked at my most recent case of salad dressing and the pull date is two and a half years away.

Thanks for the info.


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## Charleen (May 12, 2002)

I make my own ketchup, in fact, I have made 2 different kinds. The easy one is using Mrs. Wage's ketchup mix and then the time consuming one is more chunky with peaches & onions in it. This was Gramma Sarah's recipe. They really make great gifts, something no one expects.

I do it because I like to not because it's cost effective. Anyone know how much our time is worth?


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## MELOC (Sep 26, 2005)

i wonder how well one could take bulk amounts of ketchup and mustard and repack them into smaller usable portions? like maybe jelly jars and a hot water bath. those items are highly acidic and i see no problem. anyone with experience in this?


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## MoonShine (Mar 17, 2003)

I wouldn't mind making ketchup,but I've never liked any of the homemade ketchup I've tasted. It was too sour tasting to me. I make salsa..does that count?


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## bare (May 10, 2002)

MELOC said:


> i wonder how well one could take bulk amounts of ketchup and mustard and repack them into smaller usable portions? like maybe jelly jars and a hot water bath. those items are highly acidic and i see no problem. anyone with experience in this?


Surprisingly, you don't even have to go to those efforts, I decant my cans of ketchup into squeeze bottles and they keep fine at room temps. Mustard lasts forever in the refrigerator and would probably do as well as ketchup unrefrigerated.

Years ago when we didn't have power or refrigeration I'd keep gallon jars of Miracle Whip and never had any go bad or get sick from them.


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## MaryNY (Oct 25, 2004)

I make ketchup, chili sauce, green tomato pickle, and tomato jam (it's meant to use on/with meat, not toast), and I have made pumpkin pickle, dill pickles, and bread-and-butter pickles (my mother likes them, not me!). One of these years I'm going to start my own little horseradish patch and grind my own. I'd like to know how to make prepared mustard, but I think that you would only need to be made up one jar at a time -- if you were making your own you could make up a pint canning jar and that should last quite a while. And, I'd like to learn how to make dill pickle relish and sweet pickle relish -- in the meantime, I use the chop up the dill/sweet pickle and call it relish method.

I don't believe making ketchup would cost any more than the current price of ketchup in the supermarket -- IF you grow your own tomatoes or can get some "donated" from a gardener who has too many (is there such a thing) -- your own tastes so much better.

I have a huge number of tomato plants this year that I started from seed. Started 12 seeds of several varieties -- two seeds for birds, two seeds for the critters, two seeds for the bugs, two seeds for damp-off and other diseases, and the rest to plant. Weeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllll, the birds, the critters, the bugs and the diseases didn't do their part in that calculation, so I wound up with a LOT of survivors and planted most of them and gave a few away. Although two of my tinier tomato plants "disappeared" yesterday between the AM when I was mulching them and the PM when I was wandering around out there looking at the veggie patch. I'm thinking squirrel or bird -- probably bird. But the next door neighbor told me her tomatoes are being snacked on by something that is eating the tops -- so that put me on "deer alert" -- which problem I thought I had under control -- except from the side of the yard next to her -- so I now have some temporary "posts" leaning up against and over her fence (she won't care, she gets goodies from the veggie patch) to discourage any fence leaping by tomato nibblers.

Anyway, if I can keep the critters away from the tomatoes, I plan on making up at least 12 quarts of tomato juice, 12 quarts of tomato puree (like you use for spaghetti sauce), 12 pints of ketchup (I'm going to experiment with cooking it down in the crockpot), 6 pints of chili sauce, 6 pints of sloppy joe mix, maybe six quarts of whole tomatoes, 1 batch of tomato jam, and maybe cook some of the tomatoes down and make up a couple of batches of spaghetti sauce and freeze it. If I have as many tomatoes as I think, I might even try drying some of them. I like the dried ones from the supermarket, but they're pretty expensive -- and I may experiment with making "dried" grape tomaotes -- sort of like "craisins" -- only these would be "taisins" -- LOL!! I think these could be used in salads in the winter even if you didn't reconstitute them -- and save the expense of $2.00 every week or so for a container of grape tomatoes.

MaryNY


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## Lucy (May 15, 2006)

Storing ketchup at room temp. can cause it to ferment. 
Mayonnaise is very dangerous to leave at room temp. Any left out for more than 2 hours can cause you to get very ill and should be thrown away.


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## bare (May 10, 2002)

Lucy said:


> Storing ketchup at room temp. can cause it to ferment.
> Mayonnaise is very dangerous to leave at room temp. Any left out for more than 2 hours can cause you to get very ill and should be thrown away.


Could be on the ketchup, but the only stuff I ever lost was a store brand that tasted quite odd, like they left the vinegar out and it promptly molded. The store took it back without question and I've bought name brands ever since. Never had any ferment and it lasts months in the plastic squeeze bottles.

I've heard all the horror stories about food poisoning from mayo and only discovered the longetivity of Miracle Whip accidently, years ago. Used to think we'd developed cast iron stomachs over the years and were immune, but there was a thread a few years ago indicating that many people keep both mayo and MW without refrigeration and some indicated that it only caused problems when mixed with other stuff, which diluted it's vinegar content.


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## nduetime (Dec 15, 2005)

susieM said:


> Could you post the recipes, please?


Sorry I did not get back to this right away. Here are some recipes.
Ketchup
4qts. peeled,cored, and chopped ripe tomatoes
1 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped sweet red peppers
1 cup sugar
1 Tbl. salt
1 Tbl. paprika
1 1/2 tsp. celery powder or salt
1 tsp. allspice
1 tsp. mustard 
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 cups vinegar
Cook tomatoes, oonions, and peppers until soft. Press through a food mill or sieve. Cook rapidly until thick ( about 1 hour) Add spices, salt and sugar to tomatoe mixture, cook gently (about 25 min.)stirring frequently. Add vinegar and cook until thick stirring frequently to prevent sticking.Pour hot into hot pint jars, leaving 1/4 inch at top and process in boiling water bath for 10 min. This recipe is pretty much from the Ball Blue book although I taste as I go along and add as I like. Makes about 3 pints.

Creamer, pancake syrup recipes can be found on cdkitchen.com

Chocolate Sauce (taste just like Hershey syrup
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 cup tap water
2 cups sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix cocoa and water in 2 qt saucepan with whisk or fork. Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Add the sugar and continue to stir until dissolved.
Bring to a full rolling boil. Reduce heat and boil for 3 minutes. Remove from heat, add salt and vanilla, stirring to blend. Pour into a clean pint size canning jar and store in frig. We use it on goats milk for chocolate milk, on ice cream or whatever else you would put chocolate sauce on. 

I cannot remember where I got this recipe from, it might be from smartcents.com
Good luck! I am making berry syrup this week for pancakes and such.


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## bare (May 10, 2002)

nduetime said:


> Good luck! I am making berry syrup this week for pancakes and such.



Yeah, sure, tell us the truth...your jam didn't set up right?  

Leastways that's how I always make my syrup but I never do it on purpose.


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## SquashNut (Sep 25, 2005)

I like to make sweet pickle relish and my own salsa.
I have recanned mustard. i use pints or smaller and boil bath for 10 minutes.


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## Cashs Cowgirl (Jan 26, 2006)

I do sweet pickle relish and Bread and Butter pickles...tried spagetti sauce...tasted aweful...really metallic although I did it in a non-stick pot...bad...and haven't tried since. I've done Salsa, but I'm still playing with recipes. I normally do stewed tomatoes, but my tomatoes went to caplut for the third year in a row...no more. I'll just buy them by the bushel from a tomato farmer down the road from now on...I think I may start selling cantelopes...I pulled 38 this year alone now from about 5-6 plants. They were so good. Everyone loves them and wanted more. I may do more rows next year  !


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## jd4020 (Feb 24, 2005)

Most ketchup you buy at the store has corn syrup, hence a possible reason homemade doesn't taste the same. Now I like corn syrup, hey, we grow corn,  BUT i really prefer to add my own corn syrup to the things I'm making thank you. Like pecan pie. 

Anyway i've made ketchup before, even buying just plain tomato sauce or paste from the store. I just looked on the ingredients on the bottle of ketchup and just started experimenting til I got what we liked. and I left out the corn syrup. Spaghetti sauce I just take fresh tomatoes and cook them down, or a can of paste or sauce and add oregano, parsley, shredded onions or onion powder, thyme and garlic to taste. I'm wanting to try just adding basil to tomatoes as a friend just raves about it. With the paste I have to add some water or tomato juice to it to get it to the right consisitancy.
I've done the same with dressings. Not tried making my own mayo though.
I've made relishes using up garden stuff like green tomoatoes, carrots, peppers, zucchini and cabbage. Sometimes mixed together. I don't like sweet relish dso I don't put sugar in it, just mostly salt, vinegar, dill garlic etc. I then just pressure can it for the veggie requiring the longest time. It's worked for me.
Although I have canned these things, it's a good way to use up the garden produce, usually I have the ingredients on hand and can just make them up fresh--like the ketchup, dressings and other condiments.


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## Cashs Cowgirl (Jan 26, 2006)

I tried again making my own spagetti sauce...froze it this time. Turned out nice. Sort of threw it all together and tasted, then added more of this and that until it was what I wanted. We loved it. Plan to do more.


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## Marcia in MT (May 11, 2002)

Since Lighthouse stopped offering their salsa on the retail level, I've gone back to making my own -- get lots of compliments on it.

We also make our own relish, from a bread and butter pickle recipe. But I don't can the relish -- I just open a jar of pickles, run it through the grinder, and put it back in the jar.


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## Vickie44 (Jul 27, 2010)

Bare: I confess, thats how I make syrup also!


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## Kazahleenah (Nov 3, 2004)

I was just wondering today if I could "re-can" mustard. The gallon size is sooooo cheap at Gordon's but that's a LOT of mustard. Anyone ever buy a big container and re-can it to quart jars?


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## Gayle in KY (May 13, 2002)

Charleen said:


> Anyone know how much our time is worth?


Depends on what you'd be doing instead.


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