Hawthorn ketchup

Take a look at this post to learn more about hawthorn, its rich folklore and medicinal properties!

Abundant with fruit this time of the year, it makes our walks beautiful and bountiful as a single tree can be covered in fruit. Even so, be mindful of your foraging as the fruit is an important food source for birds during the cold winter months.

Disclaimer aside, this fruit (I refuse to call it a berry as it is technically a pomme), is a joy to work with. Not as fiddly as a rosehip and with plenty of pulp, easily removable seeds and skins and high in pectin, it lends itself beautifully for a number or jellies, jams and preserves.

Today I decided to jump on the hawthorn ketchup train and boy was I rewarded!

Rich in color with a velvety texture, it is truly a beauty.

So for the Hawthorn ketchup you will need:

• As many hawthorn fruits as you have the patience to collect and clean from leaves and twigs
• Vinegar
• Sugar
• Salt
• Powdered onion
• Powdered garlic
• Powdered chilli
• Powdered cloves

The first step is to clean the fruit as best you can from leaves and twigs, and then wash under cold running water. Place in a wide-mouthed pot with very little water and bring to a boil for 20 minutes or until the flesh is softened and the skin has burst. At this stage the fruit is a bit bitter and not very aromatic, but bare with me.

Let the fruit cool down a bit and then work it with a wooden spatula through a sieve (to be honest it was easier for me to do it by hand). Once you have gotten all the pulp you can out this way, add about a cup of water to the sieve to wash out the seeds and skins from the remaining pulp.

Bring the pulp and juice to a boil until the mix has thickened close to the consistency of a ketchup and THEN add your vinegar, sugar and spices to your taste.

It is important that you add them after the desired consistency has almost been achieved in order for your result to not be to sweet/sour/salty.

Place your ketchup while piping hot in sterilised bottles to make it shelf stable for a year or in unsterilised bottles in the fridge for up to a month.

Enjoy!