Blackberry Ketchup

A recipe that I promised to share with several folks.  Around here blackberries are everywhere in the fall, so it seems to make sense to do something with them.  We can only use so much jam and jelly.  Last fall I discovered blackberry ketchup. Use it like tomato ketchup....on burgers, french fries, yummy with salmon and pork.  


This recipe is based on the number of cups of blackberry puree you have rather than the number of cups of blackberries, so I hope it makes sense. It is a combination of several recipes that I found.


Puree blackberries through a food mill using the smallest holes. I heat the berries up first with a little water so they won't stick and then run them through the mill.  This will get rid of most of the pesky seeds.


The recipe is based on two cups of puree.  So if you have 4 cups, double the recipe, 6 cups, well you do the math.


2 cups of puree
1/3 c vinegar
1/3 c brown sugar
1/3 -1/2 tsp cloves, ginger, salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1 Tblsp butter
1/8 - 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper


Optional: a tsp of lemon, lime, or orange zest.


In a saucepan over medium high heat, bring all ingredients to a boil, simmer until thickened to your liking.  For me that's about 20 minutes.  It will still look pretty thin, but will thicken when it cools down.


Store in the fridge.  Or it could be canned in a hot water bath.


The ketchup gets better after the flavors have had time to hang out with each other for awhile.  In fact, the cayenne pepper may give it a lot of heat initially, but then it mellows out in a few days.


There is nothing magical about the amounts.  The original recipe called for about double the amount of sugar, so do some taste testing and vary it according to your own likes and dislikes.


If you froze blackberries last fall, and are now wondering what you were thinking, give this a try.