How to Make Homemade Ketchup, Mustard, Mayonnaise, and Relish

What says summer more than ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, and relish sitting on a table beside a couple of bags of hotdog and hamburger buns? Nothing at all. That is summer, and these are the quintessential summer condiments. Today, I'm going to show you how to make them for yourself. That's right, by the end of this post, you might have to change your name to Heinze, Hellmann, or French because you are going to be a condiment master. Now let's toast some buns, grill some burgers and fry some fries because you're going to want something to put these delicious homemade condiments on. Let's get to it!

How To Make Homemade Ketchup

What is ketchup?

When we think of ketchup, we think of tomato ketchup. It has dominated the ketchup scene for over a century. However, ketchup doesn't have to be made with tomatoes. Say what? Yeah, I know. Crazy, eh? There are, in fact, lots of other types of ketchup, including mushroom ketchup, which is popular in the UK and banana ketchup, a classic Philippine condiment. What's even crazier is that tomato ketchup didn't come into existence until almost a full century after mushroom ketchup became popular in the UK. Ketchup has a long and interesting history that I encourage you to read about in this expansive article from History. For our purposes today, ketchup is tomato ketchup. And we are going to learn to make it at home. Let's take a look.

Making Homemade Ketchup

Homemade ketchup really is just a slightly sweet and acidic sauce made using tomatoes as the base. Now, we could cook some tomatoes with vinegar and sugar, and I guess that would technically be ketchup, but it probably wouldn't taste all that great. So, we need to add some extra flavour. To do that, we start by sautéing some onion and garlic. As usual, you can find the full measurements in the printable recipe below. Once the onions soften and the garlic starts to brown, brown sugar is added and left to cook for about a minute. Next up, cider vinegar and balsamic vinegar are added. The ketchup is seasoned with salt, pepper and cinnamon. Next, the tomatoes are added, and the whole thing gets puréed. The sauce cooks for a while, then ground clove and tomato paste are added. The ketchup is left to simmer before being passed through a fine-mesh sieve. That's all there is to it.

How To Make Homemade Mustard

Mustard is not only great on hotdogs and burgers but also for dipping sausages into, for glazing ham, and as an addition or base for other sauces. It is also, by far, the easiest condiment on this list to make. Like ketchup, mustard has a pretty interesting history that you should check out here. In the meantime, here is how to make your own homemade mustard.

Homemade Mustard

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together mustard powder, turmeric (for colour), salt, garlic powder, paprika, and cayenne (leave out if you don't like hot mustard). Once the dried ingredients are combined, add vinegar and water. Whisk. You've just made mustard. You can eat it right away, but it is best if it sits in the fridge overnight.

Variations

You can use this homemade mustard recipe as is, or you can use it as a base to create your own mustards. You can add in a tablespoon or two of mustard seed to create grainy mustard. Use flavoured vinegar like raspberry or champagne to change the flavour. You can add honey to make honey mustard. You can use beer instead of water. I could go on all day becasue you really can make countless types of mustard with simple additions or alterations to this main recipe.

How To Make Homemade Mayonnaise

If you've been following this blog for any length of time, you probably have a pretty good idea of how to make a vinaigrette. Well, mayonnaise is a vinaigrette but made using egg as the binder to hold the liquid and oil together. That's it. As with the mustard above, you can use this base homemade mayonnaise recipe as it is, or you can add to it and make it your own. Some of my favourite additions are chipotle and lime. Sriracha with fish sauce and a bit of extra sugar. Roasted red pepper. Or even sundried tomato.

Make Homemade Mayonnaise

Break an egg into a bowl. Add sugar, salt, vinegar, and lemon juice, then whisk. While whisking, add a few drops of oil. Whisk in a few more drops of oil. Repeat this two to three more times. Then, while whisking, add the remaining oil in a slow, steady stream until it has all been incorporated. Whisk in a little bit of water. Adjust the seasoning with salt, sugar, and lemon juice as needed. That's mayonnaise, baby!

The Oil

It is important to use a neutral oil like canola or grapeseed. By neutral, I mean, has little to no flavour. The reason is that there are very few ingredients in mayonnaise, so the bulk of the flavour will come from the oil. If that oil has an off or strong flavour, so will the mayonnaise.

How To Make Homemade Relish

The final homemade condiment that we are going to learn to make today is relish. Like with ketchup, relish isn't one thing. You can make relish out of cucumber, which is the most popular, but also out of zucchini, corn, peppers, and any other vegetable you could probably imagine. Today, we are going to make the classic cucumber relish.

Homemade Relish

Mince some cucumber and green pepper. Put them in a pot with sugar, cold water, white vinegar, salt, cornstarch, and mustard seed. Stir until the cornstarch is incorporated. Bring the pot to a boil over high heat. Turn the heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes. Cool, and serve. Easy friggin' peasey. To make other types of relish, follow the same process but substitute the cucumber and green pepper for other ingredients like corn and red pepper.

The Wrap Up

You might be thinking that this was an interesting post but that you'll never actually make your own ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, or relish. To that, I say poppycock! Do it! Even if you only do it once, you'll be able to say you did, and you'll be happy you did. Now, I don't expect you to throw away the store-bought versions of these condiments; god knows I'm not going to. But, knowing that you can make them if you want to is kind of empowering. Maybe you'll never make ketchup, mayonnaise, or relish again, but maybe you fall in love with making mustard. I've been saying for years that we're due for an artisanal mustard craze. Maybe you'll be the one to start it. The point is, all four of these condiments are worth your effort and time at least once. Of course, there is only one way to know for sure.

Thanks for reading. Happy cooking. I'll see you next week.

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