Hawthorn Ketchup - A year in preserving

There are some very good reasons why Hawthorn Ketchup is not available on the high street. Firstly, in order to make two or three jars of ketchup one must pick, top and tail 1kg of Hawthorn berries; they each weigh about 1gm and its not called hawthorn for nothing!
Secondly, it really is a bit of a faff. there is a lot of of work in producing some of this interesting condiment.

The harvest of the hedgerow.

The area around Corner Cottage is full of hedgerows which are also full of hawthorne. In the Spring they are alive with white blossom and covered in insects and in the Autumn the palette turns to glorious reds and oranges, a feast for the birds filling up to get through the Winter. There are many different varieties of Hawthorn and as far as i know they an all be used in this recipe. certainly many different varieties go into my ketchup.
Incidentally, the leaves and flowers of the hawthone are also edible and have hundreds of names depending on where you are in the county.
This recipe produces a reddish brown, thick ketchup. This year I made two batches: one of the standard ketchup and one with dark sugar and chilli which I dubbed "Dark and Dangerous" (in truth it is dark but not very dangerous at all).

1kg Hawthorn berries
Water
500ml White wine vinegar (Cider vinegar would do)
350gms Sugar
Seasoning

Top and tail all the berries and pop into a large pan, a preserving pan is ideal.
Add enough water to cover and boil until the burst and then become soft. Drain through a sieve and then press the berries through the sieve to produce a thick paste. This will take some time and not a small amount of physical work.

Hard work!

Return the paste to the pan and add the sugar and vinegar. Boil until it is thick brown and lovely. Your bacon sandwich will never be the same again!

Adding the sugar and vinegar

For the Dark and Dangerous I substituted brown sugar for the white and malt vinegar for the white wine vinegar. I also added a couple of large red chillies to the initial boil.
I must apologise for not posting recently. The combination of a new school year and an enormous amount of preserving has meant that time has been pinched. I will try to catch up in the next few weeks

Ready for the bacon sandwich.

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