When Vogue food writer Jeffrey Steingarten conducted his landmark ketchup taste test in 1992, he categorized the condiments as Heinz, Worse Than Heinz, Better Than Heinz, and Not Really Ketchup. Nearly twenty years later, with home canning making a comeback and housemade condiments popping up on restaurant tables, The Washington Post’s Jane Black wonders, Could homemade ketchup beat Heinz?
Normally we would say, yes, of course! Homemade is always preferable to industrially processed. But as Black points out, people have certain expectations when it comes to ketchup — qualities which are not always easy to capture in a from-scratch recipe. Using wholesome, fresh ingredients to produce a ketchup with “tang, sweetness, a concentrated tomato flavor and a thick, pourable consistency” proves more elusive than expected.
One recipe is too sweet, another tastes too “fresh,” lacking that concentrated tomato punch. But a version made with canned tomatoes is deemed “a bazillion times more flavorful than Heinz” and her final fresh-tomato attempt has the thickness and tang she’s been seeking. The verdict? Homemade over Heinz, hands down.
• Read full article: Could homemade ketchup beat Heinz? at The Washington Post
With tomato season in full swing, perhaps it’s time to preserve the bounty with a batch of your own ketchup. Bon Vivant recently blogged a version using fresh tomatoes and dried chilies, or you could go the canned-tomato route with a recipe from Sara’s Cucina Bella that uses tomato puree and cooks up in 15 minutes. For more adventurous ketchup eaters, the LA Times recently published two unusual tomato-based condiments: tomato marmalade and plum ketchup. Or try making one of our favorites, curry-spiked ketchup.
What do you think? Have you ever made or tasted homemade ketchup? Is it better than store bought or does Heinz still set the standard?
Anjali Prasertong is a cook and food writer based in Los Angeles, California. She is studying to become a registered dietician.
Related: Recipe: Homemade Agave Nectar Ketchup
(Images: Flickr member Chiot's Run licensed for use under Creative Commons; BNET)
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honestly? it's hard to beat real sugar in ketchup. Heinz cannot provide that flavor.
Hunt's, on the other hand...
I'm usually homemade over store bought, except when it comes to condiments. Than I'm all about the Heinz and Hellman's!
I'm going to have to check this recipe out. I've tried making ketchup before, and it just wan't that good. In general, I have only had 1 homemade ketchup that was really good.
I would probably still pick the real sugar ketchup I pick up at the store over homemade. Why? I don't eat ketchup often enough to use up the homemade before it would spoil on me. Mmm, preservatives.
I've been making my own ketchup for the past 3 months. I definitely feel better about eating it since it's got a lot less sugar but I haven't gotten the taste right, just yet. A lot of recipes call for spices, but when I taste store-bought ketchup, I never taste spices, I just taste sugar. I also use an apple to lower the sugar content. My question is, how much vinegar and sugar is needed for the ketchup to stay fresh - as both sugar and vinegar are preservatives? I usually make a 400g tomato can's worth.
Malcolm Gladwell also wrote about how difficult it is to replicate or surpass Heinz ketchup while in the mustard market all sorts of variations are popular.
http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_09_06_a_ketchup.html
I have to admit I love heinz too, but in Chile I prefer Malloa brand ketchup, con extra tomate!
I'd think about trying this if I had a garden, but it's far too expensive and time consuming to even bother.
One of my summer to-do projects is to attempt homemade ketchup, because it means I get a product without HFCS, but I don't use it very often.
I default to Muir Glen Organics for ketchup. They make really great tomato products.
HEINZ all the way! Hunts is too much tomato, might as well eat paste! heniz has the best balance of sweet salty and vinegary goodness!
I try really hard to stay away from high fructose corn syrup so I either buy heinz that's imported from the UK or Trader Joe's. Maybe next I'll try Muir Glen and see if I like that. I tried to make homemade once but there seems to be so many other things I want to make.
I always prefer homemade ketchup, but I usually just make it by spicing up some tomato paste with vinegar, maple syrup, chipotle puree, and herbs. But then again, I could also eat tomato paste straight from the can. Love the stuff for some strange reason!
Sorry, as a kid our neighbors made their own ketchup and we thought it was weird. So sure, you fancy adults can go ahead and make your own organic, hand-canned ketchup, but your kids will want Heinz.
dorothy - I immediately think of that article when anyone mentions ketchup.
it's a bit long, but worth reading!
I go for homemade - though I'm still perfecting mine; I just started making it last year. It's certainly not exactly like Heinz, especially texture-wise, but I like the fact that it has some natural variation, and that I can play with the flavours and ingredients as much as I want to.
(Also, admittedly I don't use a lot of ketchup, but I can't say it was expensive to make a batch big enough to give half a dozen people a pint jar and still have more than a year's supply for myself, and so far there has been no sign of spoilage.)
http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2009/04/chipotle-ketchup-changes-everything.html
I make this any time I want ketchup. To be fair, it's not anything like Heinz. But that's the point. I don't want to replicate Heinz. I want to make delicious ketchup. And everyone in my family likes this, although we're spicy-food people. I wouldn't use her recipe in something that called for ketchup as an ingredient, but it's great on burgers or fries or carrots.
I made my own out of desperation once when we were drunkenly eating fries in the middle of the night and ran out completely. There may have been a snowstorm as well. Whatever it was, the situation was desperate and I love my ketchup (Heinz, only Heinz). Strangely enough the stuff I DID make using a can of tomato paste was delicious and very close to the real deal. Since then however I have only been tempted to make from scratch for reasons of health. You have inspired me to try again however.
Heinz. And I usually like homemade versions of anything but my ketchup has to be Heinz and my mayo has to be Hellman's/Best Foods (although Kewpie mayo has it's place in my fridge too.)
Best of the Kitchn Talent Search articles I've read. The author's voice closely matches the quality and tone of other kitchn contributors!
P.S. I don't like ketchup at all! If I have children, I'm going to start them on sambal oelek as soon as they're eating solid foods. :-)
Heinz now has ketchup called "Simply Heinz" that uses sugar instead of HFCS.
I love the homemade ketchup at Umami Burger in LA, I think it has star anise and maybe tarragon in it? We don't use ketchup at home anymore, just Sriracha!