Get sauced up with this tasty bacon ketchup recipe

No matter how refined your think your tastes are, no matter how many followers your hipster foodie Instagram account may have and no matter how great a chef you think you are there is probably a bottle of ketchup in your fridge.

Ketchup is believed to have originated in the southeast coastal province of Hokkien, China, where ke-tsiap, a dark fermented fish sauce, was served.

The earliest recorded recipes for ketchup appeared around 1684 in Bencoulin, a British settlement in Sumatra. These initial recipes for ketchup used bananas, mushrooms, and oysters in an attempt to replicate the desired flavours.

It wasn’t until 1812 that tomatoes appeared in ketchup recipes as documented by James Mease. Early versions of tomato ketchup were processed with a variety of chemical-based food additives to overcome bacteria borne illness that plagued ketchup’s early attempts of long term storage with minimal access to refrigeration.

Henry Heinz wanted to create a natural ketchup as consumer demand at the time wanted cleaner foods without the health risks associated with food additives. Heinz teamed up with Dr. Harvey Wiley to do just that and started producing ketchup in 1876. The rest of which is history.

On a recent visit to Traynor Farms I left with a bottle of Buster Nerve Canadian Ketchup that I put to the ultimate and most rigorous taste test. My wife made grilled cheese sandwiches and baked some cheese bites for lunch and I set out side dishes of ketchup, our usual household brand and Buster Nerve’s Canadian Ketchup. Then we called our daughters, 5 and 8, to the table and let the taste testing begin. The results were obvious as I had to refill the Buster Nerve bowl a couple of times. It was an instant hit with its deep red colour and meatier texture which seems to add to its depth of flavour and natural sweetness supported by a hint of pure maple syrup. Made without additives or preservatives, using basic, locally sourced ingredients Buster Nerve Canadian Ketchup also seems to have improved ketchup’s leachability. This is when the solids in ketchup or other food preparations like mustard, sink like sediment and the water migrates to the surface.

Buster Nerve has a variety of sauces for all of your dipping and barbecue needs and is available at select retailers or you can visit their online store at www. busternerve.com and get sauced. The following recipe is for making a variation on traditional ketchup that is easy to do and loaded with bacon.

Bacon Ketchup

Ingredients:

2.5 cups Ketchup

¼ cup Maple Syrup, the real stuff

2 tbsp. brown sugar 28 fl. Oz Diced Tomatoes

1 ¼ cups Smokey BBQ Sauce

1.5 lbs Bacon

Method:

Tray up the bacon and cook in a preheated oven at 350 °f for about 15-20 minutes; you want the bacon cooked, not crunchy, not burnt and not rubbery. Once the bacon is cooked drain off the fat into a metal container to discard (do not put in the trash or down the drain). Transfer the bacon to a plastic container and allow it to cool down.

In a large non-reactive container combine the ketchup, Maple syrup, brown sugar, diced tomatoes and Smokey Barbecue sauce. Use an immersion blender to puree until smooth 20-30 seconds, using the immersion blender.

Chop the bacon up into fine pieces, no larger than 1/4” and stir them into the pureed ketchup mixture. Season to taste with a bit of salt and pepper. Transfer the ketchup into smaller, appropriately sized plastic containers or mason jars. Recipe should yield about 5-6 cups with a shelf life of 5-6 days.

Lakefield area chef Brian Henry owns and operates Chef Brian Henry Private Chef Services: www.chefbrianhenry.com.