Quick Homemade Ketchup Recipe (2024)

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“Fifteen packets of ketchup, please”

An anonymous arm dutifully held the hot greasy bag out the window as I watched from the back seat. That, folks, pretty much sums up mealtime when my dad was in charge growing up. As you can imagine, things look a **little** different around here.

One night – I kid you not –my husband was teasing me about picking up something from Taco Bell or KFC because I didn’t feel like cooking. Katie’s response? “Dad, STOP! Those aren’t real places!”

muahahahaha

Some things never change, though, like how much kids love ketchup. My little potami will eat it on ANYTHING, so I pull it out whenever a dish is moving a little slow on their plate. It’s kind of like a magic trick, you know? Kid doesn’t like dinner? Put some homemade ketchup on the table and POOF it’s gone!

Try it withthese healthy chicken nuggetsoryuca fries, or use it to make this thousand island dressing recipe.I hope you love it as much as we do!

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4 from 32 votes

Calories 0kcal

Author Mommypotamus

Equipment

small pot or pan
refrigerator safe sealable container

Ingredients

12-14 oz tomato paste
⅓ cup maple syrup (to taste)
7 ½ tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp onion powder
1 tsp unrefined sea salt

Instructions

Place all ingredients in a small pot/pan and whisk together.
Place on the stove and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until reduced to the consistency you prefer. Store in the fridge.

Nutrition

Tartar Sauce Recipe
Thousand Island Dressing Recipe
Homemade Hot Sauce Recipe

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About HEATHER

Heather is a holistic health educator, herbalist, DIYer, Lyme and mold warrior. Since founding Mommypotamus.com in 2009, Heather has been taking complicated health research and making it easy to understand. She shares tested natural recipes and herbal remedies with millions of naturally minded mamas around the world.

63 thoughts on “Quick Homemade Ketchup Recipe”

This is great! My kiddo is 16 months and he gets to eat what I eat. I don’t eat a lot of ketchup anyways but there have been two dishes this week that I cooked and it just needed a little something and that something was ketchup. This week I didn’t fret as I offered him to dunk his food in the little dollop of ketchup I gave him, but reading those ingredients vs. this recipes is way better.
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- I made this, I used splenda instead of syrup It was way thick. I added 2 cups of water as it was as thick at tomato paste to start 🙂
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Could this possibly be frozen to help extend its shelf life?
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- Hi Heather, I’m not sure how well it freezes because with my kids a batch never lasts more than a week. If you’d like something that lasts longer you might try fermenting it – I linked to a great recipe in the post!
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  - I have frozen store bought ketchup it doesn’t freeze totally because of the viniger
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    - Why would you ever even need to freeze store bought ketchup? The shelf life is 1-2 years!
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  - Hey, Heather! How long does this ketchup actually last?
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This is great! Thanks! I’ve read a few weird recipes for how to make ketchup. I guess some people think that have the *magic* recipe that will make you flip, but sometimes I just want some regular ketchup — nothing fancy like hot red peppers in it. 🙂
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Hi Heather! I hope all is going well with preparations for the baby! Do you know, I can’t find anything called tomato PASTE here in the UK, it’s all tomato PUREE, is there a difference? Maybe someone else knows?! Thank you
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- Camilla, also where I live we have tomato puree (in the local language it sounds very similar to English). I use it every time a recipe calls for tomato paste and I have always had great results. It is very thick, much thicker than the usual sauce. You would use it when you need something more concentrate than the usual tomato sauce.
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- Camilla, I was curious so I looked it up. It seems that what you call puree in the UK is what we call paste in the USA. So you’re all set! (And Mrs. G. is right.)
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato_paste
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I made this today and found the apple cider vinegar to be too strong for me. Could regular white vinegar be used in place of the ACV?
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- Yes it can!
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Yum! Our family has cut out processed condiments and this looks easy to make up! Thank you for sharing!
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what’s the best way to ferment this? Add whey?
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- I haven’t tried fermenting it – on the days I am ahead enough to consider that step I use the recipe I linked to above 🙂
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  - Which recipe tastes more similar to store bought ketchup?Fermented or non fermented? I’m trying to decide which way to make it first. I would like to please my kids off the bat with switching their ketchup from Simply Heinz to homemade. Thanks 🙂
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    - I make a fermented ketchup that replicates the store bought flavor, and it’s similar to the above recipe, but with whey added. If you’re going to ferment it, you may want to cut back just a smidge on the vinegar, because fermenting will add the tang. Also, if you really want it to give the impression of store bought ketchup, you might want to try using honey instead of maple syrup–it replicates the sheen and mouth feel that store bought ketchups get from corn syrup.
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      - How much when do you add?
Definitely going to try this recipe, but I must know where to get one of those glass jars in the picture. I need it. Pretty please.
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- Those are Weck canning jars.
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Oooo thank you! I needed a recipe for this for a while now.
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I have tried many recipes for homemade ketchup that is refined-sugar free. This one is the best I’ve made and it was the easiest! Thanks!
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- YAY! So glad to hear that, Lisa!
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I made this today. It tastes like ketchup 🙂 but I had to double the liquid in it and it’s still a little too thick… Maybe it was my tomato paste? (kirkland organic) Nonetheless, awesome recipe and thank you!
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- Yes, it is probably just a difference in the thickness of the tomato paste. Mine tends to be more on the runny side 🙂 Glad you liked the recipe overall!
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Love cast iron!
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Hi there! Do you have any pointers if my batch of home made ketchup came out tasting more like thick marinara sauce? I can’t figure out how to get more of that “ketchup” taste, so I can get my family off of the store bought stuff. Thanks!
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I’ve been looking for a recipe for home made ketchup and will be trying this out this week 🙂 I’m really hoping that my kids and my hubby (who eats ketchup with EVERYTHING) won’t notice the difference too much! I also took a quick look at your fermented ketchup recipe and love that it has a longer shelf life. I’ve never come across raw fermented sauerkraut brine. Where would I find this? Do I need to visit a specialty store of some sort?
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Love those glass containers! Where are they from :)?
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Do you think raw honey would be a dutiable substitute to maple syrup?
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That sounds great! I LOVE simple recipes 🙂 Can’t wait to try it.
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I just made this but I’m actually considering adding more vinegar…it did cross my mind, though, that I may have forgotten the extra two Tbsp of vinegar :\
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I absolutely love your ketchup and your bbq sauce made out of it. I am so thankful for both!
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My batch that I made was delicious, but so thick. I ended up having to add a ton more vinegar and even maple syrup. Would it change the taste too much if I used a can of tomato paste and a can of tomato sauce? Maybe that’d thin it out? Or do you have other suggestions on how to thin it out? Thanks!!
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- Hi Amanda, the brand of tomato paste I buy is a bit runny so that may be the difference here. If it were me I’d just add a bit of water to thin it out.
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Woohoo! I am so happy to hear that, Lisa Allen.
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Hi, this looks great! have you tried it with honey rather than maple syrup? would it be similar amounts?
Also just a note on the whole tomato paste/tomato puree thing.. here in Australia they are two different things. Tomato puree is basically blended tomatoes, but tomato paste is more processed, it’s ‘tomato concentrate’; very thick, very red, very reduced down to a paste that doesn’t much resemble tomato anymore and you only need a little of it for a lot of flavour. So if you used one or the other you’d get quite different outcomes, which seems to have been the case judging by the comments above. I think I’ll try for a combo of the two. I just made sausages with natural casings and my new mincer/juicer, we were all so excited to have real sausages not just meatballs, but they were crying out for ketchup.
Thanks again for coming through, there’s not a food I’ve wanted yet that you haven’t had a great recipe for, love your work!
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- Thanks, Elowyn! I have tried it with honey and did not find the flavor very enjoyable, so I stick with maple syrup 🙂
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  - I’m really looking forward to trying this recipe! Been looking for a good recipe for a while!
    What would be the shelf life of this (the unfermented version)? Was thinking to make a big batch to give to family…
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    - I’m not sure . . . maybe 5-7 days or so? My family loves it and goes through a batch pretty quickly.
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- Just an FYI, I always make my ketchup with raw honey, and we love it that way! Not sure if it’s because of different flavors of honey, or just different tastes in food, but you might want to try it both ways and see which camp you fall into.
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so just a question, is boiling it just to reduce it or is it for another reason? We felt it changed the flavor just a bit when boiled so just though we’d ask!
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- HI Fawna, it’s partly to reduce and partly to allow the flavors to meld together 🙂
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  - Hi looking for the fermented version link where can I find it on your original post
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I had to laugh at that Meme!!! This past Thanksgiving my nephew seriously had his plate covered in mashed potatoes with about 1/3 – 1/2 cup of ketchup on it! He puts it on Bananas, mac’n’cheese… EVERYTHING!
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why is their no printing button i want to print some recipies
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Love the site. Going to try quick ketchup first and may throw in some horseradish. Thanks for sharing you recipes.
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Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet but I make all my ketchup recipes in a small crock pot then I don’t have to babysit it so close. I leave the lid off so it thickens quicker.
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I finally made this recipe today and I love it! I usually use another ketchup recipe that requires more ingredients and more time but this was so good, I think my old recipe got the boot. Jack and I ate this by the spoonful before dinner.
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For simplification, the amount of vinegar in this recipe is 0.05 cups short of a half cup… the third and two tablespoons was a bit off looking for me.
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- (More complicated.) It’s effectively a half cup, and given the recipe is mostly based on 2 and 4, thought it would be easier… but technically it is 3 and 2/3 ounces if one is the be precise.
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Awesome recipe! Ten times better than store-bought!
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Hi there can I make my own tomato paste, by boiling the tomatoes and then blending them. Here in South Africa we have tomato paste and puree but it has preservatives.
Thank You
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How long is this good for without fermenting?
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Hi there! I’ve been going through your site and pinning my heart out with your recipes. They look great!
I was wondering though, if I could substitute the maple syrup in the recipe for a sugar-free one, or what your thoughts would be on it? I am looking for a decent, homemade ketchup recipe for diabetic cooking, and I think this might be it. 🙂
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This was the best recipe for only a few ingredients and so easy and fast. Thank you!!
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Hello
Interesting recipe for catsup, never seen it with maple syrup before.
However, at the bottom of the article is your offer for Thrive. I don’t do a “pig in a poke” shopping, so I wanted to check it out first, and can’t because you have to give them your information, signing up for emails BEFORE you can see their selection and prices. I find this a very deceitful manner of marketing, and roping people into more spam we don’t need. Maybe let your partners at Thrive know that this is NOT a good way to gain customers. I’ll go with ANYONE else if I can see what their prices are without giving them my personal information first. (of course, IF their selection and prices are reasonable)
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This recipe used to call for allspice (which I substitute with cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg) – but it has disappeared! Do you remember what amount of allspice the recipe calls for?
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Thank you for making a recipe that doesn’t require that I go to the mountains of Tibet for an ancient, rare spice kept hidden by the monks. Glad I can make this with just what I have in my cabinet.
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Hi! Love to see the recipe here. I bought unsweetened ketchup and was the talk of the town – or at least the household. I can get granulated maple sugar and put it in with the acv to soak and dissolve it, that should take care of the lack of syrup! Thank you for all you are working on and sharing with us!
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Hi there, I was making some sloppy joes and realized I didn’t have any ketchup and I needed a cup and a half. I didn’t want to go out just for ketchup since we don’t even eat it that much. I thought, I’ll just make some real quick. I searched and your recipe was the first one that popped up. I tied it and I don’t need to look any further. It was great! I will keep this as a go to from now on.
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- So happy to hear you liked it, Becky!
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