Ketchup Comparison

So, with both batches finally being ready, we did a comparison tasting. Wow!! What a difference a recipe makes. These weren't just two different ketchups, they were two different foods. The picture shows my New Old-Time Tomato Ketchup on the left and middle. The far left one was made in August 2007 and the middle one is from last month's batch. Lane's Savoryish Ketchup is on the right.

We both confessed that we use ketchup mainly as an ingredient, but while I do put mine plain on steak, Lane says he rarely if ever uses his as a condiment.

Courtney's Eating Notes
Lane's ketchup really surprised me. I like its ketchupy texture a lot, and it had really good mouth feel. But the taste is not at all like a standard ketchup. There is a ton of cinnamon in it - so much so that I could feel it physically and it, plus the onions, started numbing my tongue after a few tastes. Somehow the cinnamon combined with the sugar made it taste very sweet to me. Lane only puts 1/2 cup of sugar into the whole batch, but combined with the cinnamon it was a lot more than my palate is used to handling. But I found it had an intriguing raisin-like taste to it that made me want to pair it with something - lamb or maybe even a pasta primavera.

My new ketchup still tastes too salty to use as a sauce. The taste will mellow over time but now it's sharp and, to me, has a slightly unpleasant metallic tone. I think it will be a lot better in 6 months. The older sample had really aged nicely and made me very happy.

Lane's Tasting Notes
As noted, I tend not to use my ketchup as a condiment, but rather as an ingredient in sauces. These are not truly 'comparable' side-by-side, other than the fact they both share a name. And they do share some common ingredients.

The lack of sugar in Courtney's, other than that in the tomatoes and onions, and relatively high salt content, is going to create something that needs to meld over a long period. And that was evidenced by the two versions of hers that we tasted. The more recently created one distinctly more salty and what I would call raw with distinct flavors poking out. Basically, it needing more time for the flavors to blend. The aged on had mellowed out those distinct flavor spikes. Overall, I liked the spicy tones that this ketchup has and could see using it on cow-based foods by itself.

Mine was significantly sweeter and not at all subtle with the cinnamon, it has sugar, roasted tomatoes and the onions are sauted, all of which will develop more small chain sugars and intensify the sweetness. Then plonking in a bunch of cinnamon will, Courtney noted, stimulate your palate creating a big mouth fizz. Or, in her case, numbing her tongue after a while. As I said previously, I use this combined with other ingredients in sauces and marinades. It will also change character over time, but I will have to wait to do any side-by-side comparisons. It does have some dried fruit overtones, not sure if it is raisin that I would use as a descriptor, but definitely fruit.

I will be posting some more thoughts using these two ketchups as ingredients in the future to give a more useful spin on how I find using them as complimentary ingredients.