Part 2

The selection of the spices depends entirely upon the flavor desired. Cinnamon, cassia, cloves, allspice, mace, pepper, paprika, cayenne pepper, mustard, ginger, coriander, bay leaves, caraway and celery seed, are all to be found in the various formulae. Some manufacturers spice lightly in order to retain the maximum of the base flavor, while others go to the opposite extreme on the misguided assumption that they will act as preservatives. The quantity used should be determined by the flavor desired and upon no other consideration. The spices may be used whole, ground, or in some cases as acetic acid or oil extracts. The whole spices are preferred by nearly all the manufacturers of high grade goods. They are more expensive, but give a different flavor from the extracts. The spices are weighed for each batch and are tied in a bag or placed in a wire basket and suspended in the kettle while cooking. Some use very large quantities and cook from only ten to twelve minutes in order to get a distinctive flavor. This is very expensive, as only a small quantity of the flavoring matter is extracted in such a short time. One of the serious objections to the use of the whole spices is that they may darken the ketchup and also cause some discoloration in the neck of the bottle. For that reason, black pepper and allspice in particular are being discarded, and oil of cloves is being used in part for the whole berries. The grade of the spice will also have an effect, the cheap stock being unsuitable for a bright clean product. Small quantities of ground cayenne pepper are used as a substitute for the black pepper.

Acetic acid extracts of some of the spices are being used to a certain extent, but they have a peculiar harsh flavor that makes them undesirable. The oil extracts can be used to only a very limited extent, as they impart a flavor suggestive of the drug store.

One method of making a nearly complete extraction of the spices is to place them in their proper proportion in vinegar a few weeks before the ketchup season begins and then add the spiced vinegar in the proper proportion to each batch. The result is different from that obtained by cooking, and the method is not recommended for first grade goods.

The waste of spices in the usual process of manufacture is indicated by some work done by Mr. H. E. Bishop of the laboratory of the Indiana State Board of Health. He found that in making ketchup, when the boiling was kept up for thirty minutes, that only 27.8 per cent of the oil of cassia, 11.5 of the oil of cloves, and 33.3 per cent of the oil of allspice were extracted. (Unpublished report.)

Paprica rosen, Hungarian, or sweet paprika, is used for coloring purposes, though it parades as a spice. This is a mild variety of Capsicum annuum, one of the species of the genus Capsicum, from which cayenne pepper is made. The variety offered to manufacturers has a more intense red color and much less pungency than the ordinary paprika. This paprika can be obtained as the bright fruit, ground dry, or in oil. In the latter, it is said, that part of the capsicin is removed, also that the oil sets the color in inferior material. The oil is of a reddish-yellow color and the large number of globules and irregular masses serve to distinguish it from cayenne pepper. It fulfills the claims of the importers—“coloring the ketchup, not adding materially to the pungency, and coming inside the laws in being one of the regular ingredients.” It requires just about sixteen times as much as would be required of ordinary paprika to get the same flavor. Considering the cost, in the relative proportion required, there can be little doubt of its real purpose. It will conceal inferiority to ordinary observation in that it gives a red color where otherwise a muddy color might be present. The color does not have durability, and it is easily recognized under the microscope.

Onions and garlic are added in varying quantities and may or may not be kept in the batch throughout the whole cooking period. Considerable difference in flavor is apparent with the length of time of the cooking. Chili peppers are also used in hot ketchup or cocktails.

Vinegar is added to nearly all ketchup. Formerly the acidity was obtained from the fermentation of the tomatoes and the resultant acid was probably mostly lactic. The flavor was different and not so agreeable. A good cider, grain, or malt vinegar may be used. Most manufacturers prefer to use grain vinegar of ten per cent acidity, as the volume required is less and interferes less with concentration. For real flavor, however, this may not be the best. Lately, glacial acetic acid has been substituted for vinegar, a practice which can not be approved and which ought to be abandoned. Citric acid is also added by some. Vinegar is usually added near the finish of the batch, as otherwise it attacks the kettle to some extent and a part is driven off in boiling. Experiments made by adding vinegar to pulp and evaporating to fifty per cent of its weight in twenty and forty minutes, respectively, show that in the former case the added acidity was decreased in almost the same proportion as the total evaporation, but in the latter case the acid was not driven off quite so rapidly as the moisture. This does not correspond with views held by chefs, as most of them seem to believe that practically all the vinegar is driven off. In order to obtain the sterilizing effect of boiling in an acid medium, it is advisable to make this addition at least five to ten minutes before the end of the cooking period. In home-made ketchup, vinegar is usually added near, or at, the start, and aids in sterilizing the product, as boiling alone may not, whereas, boiling in the presence of an acid will, sterilize.

Oil is not an essential to ketchup, and while a small quantity is often used to prevent foaming, its use in large quantities is undesirable.

Sugar is added to give the desired flavor. The higher the acidity, whether natural, or acquired by adding vinegar, the greater the quantity of sugar needed. In the high grades of ketchup, granulated sugar only is used, but in the cheaper grades, soft sugar or glucose, may be used, though the latter must be declared on the label. The sugar is usually added when the cooking is about one-half completed. There is an advantage in heating both the sugar and vinegar in a separate kettle and adding them while hot, as it will prevent a check to the cooking and lessen the sticking to the coils or kettle.

Salt is used in small quantity and is added near the close of the cooking process.

The use of flour or starch in any quantity for the purpose of making the body thick or heavy is properly regarded as an adulteration. This is also true of pulp from a foreign source, like pumpkin or apples.

The density of the ketchup is left usually to the judgment of the chef, who depends upon the appearance as it pours from the ladle. A quick test can be made by weighing, as done for pulp, but in this case each manufacturer must determine his own standard. A ketchup having specific gravity of 1.090 is apt to be thin; a satisfactory consistency is usually about 1.120 to 1.140.

As soon as the cooking is completed, the ketchup is run through a finishing machine to remove all hard particles of tomato, bits of spice, etc., and to give smoothness to the product by breaking it up into very small particles. There are two types of finishers, the shaking sieves and the rubbing machines. The former is suitable for thin ketchup. The resultant product gives the best possible appearance under the microscope, the tissue showing whole cells, little tearing, and the minimum amount of debris and mold filaments. The objections to the sieve are that the capacity is small and the waste is comparatively large. The rubbing finisher needs to be very carefully adjusted, otherwise it forces practically everything through in a very finely comminuted state. The cells of the tissues are torn to shreds, their contents discharged, molds are broken into hundreds of fragments, and a ketchup may be made to have the appearance of being made from poor material. The finishers have large capacity and will work on either light or heavy goods, but like the cyclone, must be handled with judgment, not attempting to force the last ounce through the sieve.

BOTTLING.

Only new bottles should be used and these should be thoroughly rinsed before using and preferably with hot water. Since new bottles have no tightly adherent particles on the inside, the use of clear water is sufficient, dependence being placed upon the after process to insure sterilization.

The bottling should be done at as high temperature as is practicable, about 165 to 170 degrees F. If the temperature is higher than this, the possibility of burns in handling is increased, and too much space is left in the neck of the bottle after corking, due to shrinkage of the ketchup on cooling, and if much lower, the expansion in processing causes excessive loosening of caps or corks and breakage. Furthermore, when low temperature is used, it requires a very long time to heat the contents of a bottle in pasteurizing. A ketchup is a very poor conductor of heat and the heavier the body, the longer the time that is required.

The closure may be made with either corks or seals, the recent improvements in the latter making them much safer than they were a few years ago.

PROCESSING.

After the bottles are sealed, they should be given a process to insure sterility, the time being about fifty minutes for half-pints and an hour and fifteen minutes for pints—or sufficient time to insure 190 degrees F. for twenty minutes at the center of the bottle.

This step is omitted by many manufacturers, dependence for sterilization being placed upon washing the bottle and subsequent heating for about twenty minutes. The heating is accomplished by conveying the bottles through a chamber containing numerous steam pipes at high temperature and discharging them at the bottling machine. It is assumed that sterilization of the ketchup has taken place in process of manufacture, and the heat within the bottle will care for any infection which may possibly have taken place at a later time from the cap or cork. The safety of this measure depends upon using a fairly acid ketchup or one with a heavy body. It is a risky procedure for mild or thin ketchup. It is a common occurrence to have the stock keep apparently while in the bottle, but spoil shortly after opening. The spoilage after opening is most often due to forms which have been present since manufacture and only need the presence of air to start growth, and are not due to infection from the air. A ketchup will inhibit the growth of organisms which gain entrance from without, while those which are present but held in abeyance through exclusion of air, will sometimes grow. The writer has samples of ketchup put up in 1906 which apparently are sterile, but which will show spoilage within a few days after opening, though done under sterile conditions, and the spoilage be identical in kind with that observed soon after manufacture. How long these organisms will remain alive is not known. In canning, no foods are considered safe without processing, and the same principle is a good one to follow with ketchup.

Processing may be accomplished in open tanks, in retorts, in specially constructed pasteurizers, such as used in the brewing industry, and in hot chambers, the method is not material, though there may be considerable difference in point of economy.

FACTORY ARRANGEMENTS.

The making of ketchup is simple and the factory arrangement for doing the work should be as compact as possible, so that after the pulp is once heated, there is an advantage in having the various steps follow in succession by gravity rather than be conveyed by pumps, especially in small plants. The piping should be as short and direct as possible. The machinery for filling bottles, corking, etc., leaves much to be desired; as separate units they work fairly well, but there needs to be some method devised for handling the bottles automatically from the time they are placed on the washer until they are labeled, ready for the box. At present the time between turning the crate of tomatoes upon the sorting belt until it is ready for the box is only slightly over two hours. Further improvement will not be so much in shortening the time as in eliminating the hand labor.

The foregoing description applies to the making of unfermented, non-preservative ketchup, made from sound stock and delivered into the bottle. Very little ketchup, comparatively speaking, is sold to the consumer in any package other than the bottle. It can be delivered into the bottle when first made, at less expense for labor, with less fuel, and with distinctly less waste than at any subsequent time. It will have a better color and consistency than if stored in bulk and bottled later. It is, therefore, advisable to bottle as much as possible at the time it is made. Ketchup may be packed in bulk in jugs, tin cans, and in barrels, but not satisfactorily; the jug is a poor package; the enamel may be dissolved off the tin can and pinholes form; and the barrel always gives a poor color and off flavor. The best container for bulk ketchup is the gallon glass bottle.

PULP STOCK.

During the height of the season, it may not be possible to convert all the tomatoes directly into ketchup, in which event the surplus may be made into pulp. The first part of the operation is identical with that already described. The concentration is carried just far enough so that subsequently by slow heating for spicing it will give the proper consistency when made into ketchup. A standard has not been fixed, but tentatively it has been proposed that it be at about a specific gravity of 1.035. The concentration may be carried further and water added at the time of the final cooking, but when this is done, the resultant product does not have the same smooth consistency that is obtained by using the thinner pulp. Heavy pulp is made for the purpose of economizing in cans, but experience has shown that economy does not always follow. The higher the concentration, the higher the acid content, and this may attack the enamel and metal with resulting bitter flavor and frequent pinholes. Some manufacturers who prepare their own pulp carry the concentration between 1.030 and 1.033. The method of obtaining this density is to use flasks graduated to hold 500 or 1000 grams of water at 200 degrees F., fill them with the hot pulp and weigh at once. For each flask there should be a proper counterpoise, and the balance be sensitive and weigh in grams. If the 1000-gram flask be used, the specific gravity will be the same as the weight of the pulp. With a valve funnel the flask may be filled level full and the weight taken in less than thirty seconds. For cold pulp, a similar flask is used, but graduated at 60 degrees F. and after filling, the flask is set in a sling and whirled a few times to free it from bubbles, filled again to the level, and then weighed. For pulp of a specific gravity of less than 1.037, this gives fairly concordant results, but the errors increase rapidly the higher the concentration. The same methods may be employed on ketchup. Recently, W. D. Bigelow has improved the apparatus by using a copper flask and adding a handle by which the flask may be submerged in the kettle to take the sample and thus prevents the entrance of air. The use of flasks of any size is described in Bulletin No. 3, National Canners’ Association.

The use of the specific gravity method only partly solves the question of standardization. Two pulps each of 1.035 may vary considerably in what the chef terms body and there is no method of accurately measuring this factor or expressing it. Pulp made by draining will be lighter in weight with the same body, and that from skins and cores will be rough or have the appearance of separating into small flakes or lumps. The specific gravity bears a close relation to the soluble solids, and as these do not have a constant ratio to the fiber in whole fruit, and as the ratio is further disturbed by drainage and in the use of trimmings, it is obvious that the method will not give an exact standard.

Pulp should be filled into gallon or five gallon cans as hot as possible and sealed at once. The practice followed by some manufacturers is to steam the cans first, then depend upon the heat in the pulp to sterilize. The cans are allowed to stand hot for forty minutes, then cooled. The other practice is to give the hot cans a process of about twenty minutes for gallons, forty minutes for five gallons, and then to cool. Cooling is essential to retain color and flavor, as prolonged heat causes “stack burning,” producing a brownish color and a bitter taste. The highest grade pulp can not be held in barrels for the reason that the heat is retained too long. Stack burning will take place in glass if the packages are not allowed to cool well in the air before being stored, though the changes are not so marked as in the tin.

PULP FROM TRIMMINGS.

The losses in stock from canning tomatoes amounts to about forty per cent. This is due to the unbusiness-like attempt to can all kinds—very large, very small, and wrinkled, which can not be peeled with economy—to wasteful methods of peeling, and to excessive draining of fruit from handling in too thick layers. In this waste there is much that has good food value and which might be worked up into pulp or ketchup stock if properly done. In order to do this, the tomatoes should be sorted so that only those which are in perfect condition for canning will go to the peelers. These should be medium sized, firm, evenly ripened all over, and free from wrinkles. Such tomatoes can be peeled at the minimum of expense and loss. The sound tomatoes which are small, excessively large, wrinkled, or with green butts, can go in with whole tomato stock. The loss in peeling will then be small and can advantageously be discarded. If it be decided to use trimmings from the peeling tables, provision must be made for extra washing, as the ordinary washer removes little more than the coarse dirt and particles, is not sufficient for unusual conditions or to remove tightly-adhering material, and, furthermore, rot must be eliminated before the tomatoes go to the peelers. The writer has never seen a group of one hundred, or any number, of peelers who will stop to trim and separate rot from peels and cores. Trimming can be done better by a few when sorting the tomatoes than at any subsequent step. If clean skins and cores can be had from the peeling table, they can be converted into pulp and sold if labeled properly, “from trimmings.” Whether such waste is suitable for a good product depends upon how it is handled. For the most part, it has not been handled as well as it should be.

The finished pulp made from skins and cores is not the same as that from whole stock. It contains more fiber, remains more or less lumpy, and lacks the smooth body of whole pulp. The color is not so good, and the flavor is likely to be somewhat different. The flavor of the seed cells and that of the fleshy portion of the tomato are different. Pulp made from each part separately shows marked difference, that from the seed cells being poor in color, but with the more characteristic fruit flavor. Tests show that neither part has any true jellying powers, but that the part from the seed cells gives the quality of smoothness, the holding together of the particles of solids. Neither gives a first class pulp alone.

COLOR.

Home-made ketchup generally has a rather dark reddish or brownish color, due to prolonged heating, made necessary under kitchen conditions. At one time this was thought desirable and some of the older recipes call for the use of caramel in order to imitate this color. Most manufacturers now aim to secure a clean, clear color, preferably bright red. This may be obtained when good fruit is used and handled quickly; a muddy brownish or yellowish color is looked upon with suspicion as indicating poor material or defective methods.

The necessity for a clear red variety has already been pointed out, for without proper stock, a superior product of uniform quality can not be made. The tomatoes must be well vine-ripened, as the presence of green fruit and green butts has a decidedly dulling effect. Colorimeter tests show that the use of even small quantities of green material have an immediate dulling effect. Promptness in handling the fruit after the tissue is once exposed to the air is also essential. The tomato, like some other fruits, turns brownish when the surface is cut or exposed. This does not occur as rapidly, nor is it so marked as in apples or in pears, but it is present. When the tomato is converted into pulp, every particle is exposed to the air for a very short time—long enough to make some slight change. The change is most marked in pulp from raw stock and least in that which has been well heated. It naturally follows that ketchup made promptly from whole stock will have the best color, that from canned tomatoes next, then canned pulp, and lastly, that from trimming stock. Pulp allowed to stand hot for too long a time will have a brownish color like stack burning. When barrel pulp was used, this was ascribed to the tannin extracted from the oak.

Pulp should not come in contact with iron at any stage, as the union of the acid of the fruit with the metal will cause discoloration. When such discoloration does occur, it becomes uniform throughout the mass, and not in the neck of the bottle as has sometimes been described.

Darkening in the neck of the bottle is frequently due to the spices used, as has already been pointed out. It can be redistributed throughout the whole by placing the bottle in a shaker for a short time.

Darkening at the top may sometimes be due to extraction of color from the corks. Soaking corks in two per cent acetic acid, then in hot water before drying, and paraffining, will assist in preventing discoloration on cheap grades.

Discoloration in the neck also results from the small amount of air incorporated and from any subsequent addition which may come in through the cork or seal. Bottles which are full to the cork may show no darkening, those having a space of an inch or more between the contents and cork may show little discoloration, while those having more space will show much more marked discoloration. This holds for both pulp and ketchup and in this case the discoloration begins on the surface and works downward. The product made from some fruit will discolor more than that made from fruit grown in another section of the country.

A bright red color is secured in some brands of ketchup by means of paprika, as indicated under spicing.

A light colored ring in the bottom of a bottle is generally due to organisms and debris, indicative of the use of barrel or trimming-stock pulp, or it may result from changes after the process of manufacture. It has been mistaken for sand.

KEEPING QUALITY.

Ketchup must not only keep while in the unopened bottle, but for a reasonable time after opening, if it is to be a commercial success. Every canner understands that if he puts food in a hermetically sealed package and sterilizes by heat, that it will keep until opened. The same principle applies to ketchup in the bottle, but there are some packers who wish to be spared this expense and trouble and prefer to use a substitute for heating.