Ketchup or Catsup. Take your pick.

I strongly dislike bottled ketchup. It's sickeningly sweet and smooth and hits my gag reflex all wrong. There is an amazing place downtown (and Duluth) called Hell's Kitchen. It's on my top five favorite restaurant list. They make wicked awesome ketchup. They also happen to have recently published a cookbook in which they share the recipe. I tweaked it slightly and I'll share that version with you:

1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes

1/2 cup minced onion

3 canned pear halves, drained

3 TBS juice from canned pears

1 can tomato paste

1/4 cup brown sugar

3 TBS apple cider vinegar

1 tsp dry mustard

1 garlic clove, minced

1 tsp salt

1 tsp white pepper

1 TBS whole peppercorns

1 whole bay leaf

1 tsp whole allspice

1tsp ground mace

1 tsp whole cloves

Put the first group of ingredients (tomatoes - white pepper) into a food processor and whir it good until smooth-ish but don't overdo. Transfer to a saucepan and bring to a simmer over low heat. Put the remaining group of ingredients in some cheesecloth and tie it up. Plop it in and let it simmer, stirring occasionally, for at least an hour and up to 3. Squeeze the spice bag good, discard, let it cool and put it in a pretty jar.