Sauces: Sauce is a product similar to ketchup, prepared from pulps of tomato or other fruits/ vegetables having TSS not less than 15% and cooked to a suitable consistency with added sugar, salt, spices, and vinegar (acetic acid). Sugar, salt, spices, acetic acid all act as partial preservatives. According to the FPO, fruit should have a minimum of 15% TSS and 1.2% acidity. To ensure its keeping quality the sauces should contain 3% acetic acid. The sugar content may vary from 15-30% according to the kind of sauce made. Preservatives and colours may also be added in sauces for increasing storability. Sauces may or may not be prepared from tomatoes, but ketchup is essentially prepared from tomatoes. Some examples of sauces are tamarind sauce, pumpkin sauce, chilli sauce, Soya sauce, etc. Sauces are of two kinds and they are thin and thick sauces. Thin sauces mainly consist of vinegar extract of various flavouring materials like spices and herbs. A sauce that doesn’t flow freely and which is highly viscous is called a thick sauce.

Ingredients:-

Sugar -75g

Red Chilli Powder -5g

Salt -10g

Cinnamon, cardamom, Anil seed, Black Pepper,(all powdered) -10g each

Onion(Chopped) -50g

Clove(Headless) -5g

Ginger(Chopped) -10g

Vinegar 25ml

Sod.Benzoate 0.25g/kg of final product

Procedure:-

1. Selection of fruits: Select sound ripe tomatoes having deep red colour. Remove all green and yellow portions. Green fruits make the ketchup inferior in colour and flavour.
2. Preparation of pulp: Take the selected tomatoes in aluminum or stainless steel vessel and crush thoroughly with a wooden handle. Cook the crushed mass for 5 minutes and mash it well while cooking. While it is sufficiently soft. Strain through the fine mosquito net cloth or 1mm meshes stainless steel sieve. Discard the seeds and skins.
3. Cooking: To the pulp add about 1/3rd of the sugar given in the recipe. Place the spices (onion, garlic, cloves, cardamom, black pepper, jeera, mace, cinnamon, and chili powder) in a muslin cloth bag (Jelly bag) and immerse it into the pulp. Heat the pulp till it thickens and is reduced to about 1/3rd of its volume. Remove the bag and squeeze it well to extract the aroma and flavour of the spices.

Add vinegar, salt, and the remaining sugar. Heat the mass for a few minutes so that the volume of the finished product is about 1/3rd of the original pulp.

4. Addition of preservatives: To a small quantity of finished product, add the preservative sodium benzoate, at the rate of 295mg/kg of finished product and mix thoroughly. This can be increased up to 885mg/kg as per specifications of FPO, 1955. Transfer the dissolved preservatives to the rest of the product and mix thoroughly.
5. Cooling and Mixing: Pour the finished product into medium-size sterilized bottles, seal them air-tight with crown cork, and pasteurize in boiling water for 30 minutes. Cool the bottle in the air and store it in a cool dry place.
6. Judging endpoint: The endpoint is determined by a hand refractometer. When TSS reaches the desired level (28-30%) sauce or ketchup is considered ready. Judging endpoint by volume is very simple and common in practice. The volume is measured by a stick. If the volume of the produce remains 1/3rd of its original volume sauce/ketchup is considered ready.

Note:

• Chilly powder, spices, onion, ginger, and garlic should be tied loosely in a muslin cloth bag.
• Vinegar and colour may be added towards the end of boiling.
• 1/3rd of sugar may be added in the beginning to preserve the red colour of pulp.
• Instead of clove, cinnamon, and cardamom, their essences may be added more conveniently.
• Garlic may or may not be added, depending upon the consumer’s acceptance.
• Acid magenta II colour is avoided. Choose other red colors or orange colors such as erythrosine, carmoisine, sunset yellow, etc.

Bottling: Ketchup is filled in bottles at 88^OC and is pasteurized for 30 minutes in hot water at 85^OC-90^OC after cooking. It is preferable to add 250 ppm sodium benzoate and then pasteurize the product.