Catsup Fail

Today began the long Labor Day 3-day weekend.  I decided I would make some catsup with the 20+ tomatoes from the garden.

Scraggly-looking blighty tomatoes, but good for catsup!

I chose the "Smooth Catsup" recipe out of the Esther Shank Mennonite cookbook because I was hoping that it's smooth-ness would make it palatable to Hannah, who is really our only catsup-eater in the household.  It called for 6 pints of tomato juice, among other things, so I began by getting the tomatoes ready to juice.

Sue allowed me to borrow her strainer again this weekend.  I quickly learned that juicing tomatoes is much messier than straining apples for applesauce.

What a mess!

The recipe said to cook the catsup mixture for one hour and then add Clearjel or cornstarch to thicken it.  I cooked it for over an hour and added significantly more thickening agent (first Clearjel, then cornstarch when I ran out of the other) than what the recipe calls for, but it just never thickened up in a satisfactory manner.  I'm thinking maybe I wasn't cooking the mixture at a hot enough temperature to thicken it down enough.

I ended up with over 12 pints when I should have had about 10 based on the recipe and a half that I was cooking, which probably means I didn't cook the tomato sauce down enough.

I'm waiting to see if it thickens or sets some as it cools.  I'll know the answer to that in the morning.  If not, I guess I'll have some juicy-type stuff that I can throw into soup recipes or whatnot.  I also canned 6 pints of plain tomato juice since I ended up with more juice than what I needed for the catsup.

My most significant discovery today is that my oven runs anywhere from 25 to 50 degrees cooler than it should.  I've been frustrated all summer long at my apparent inability to successfully bake quick breads.  This oven shortfall helps explain why my breads were browning on the outside but still gummy and too moist on the inside.  I guess I'll need to start setting my oven hotter than what the recipe calls for.