A wild alternative to the store cupboard favourite, this hawthorn ketchup recipe celebrates the abundance of haw berries found in our hedgerows in the autumn. The haws bring a tart, slightly smokey flavour to the ketchup for a great spin on the classic.
Feel free to play around with this recipe, adding or substituting spices to your liking – if you add 7 Spice to the ketchup, you’ll turn it into a hoisin style sauce, perfect for duck and wild game dishes.
500g hawthorn berries
300ml cider vinegar or elderflower vinegar
300ml water
175g brown sugar
½ tsp salt
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp nutmeg
Pinch ground wood aven root (or cloves)
Pinch ground allspice
Pinch pepper
Pick and wash your hawthorn berries.
In a heavy bottomed pan, simmer the berries with the vinegar and water for 30 minutes.
Pour the berries and all the liquid through a fine sieve into a clean saucepan, pushing the fruit pulp through the sieve with a wooden spoon to help get as much pulp from the fruits. Leaving the stones and stalks in the sieve with as little pulp as possible, then discard the stones and stalks.
Add the rest of the ingredients into the saucepan and slowly bring to the boil.
Reduce the pan to a simmer and cook for a further 10 minutes to your desired consistency.
Pour into sterilised bottles.
Store for a month or two before using to allow the flavours to develop.
Once opened, keep your hawthorn ketchup in the fridge and use within 6 months.
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If you add 7 Spice to the ketchup, you’ll turn your hawthorn ketchup into a hoisin style sauce, perfect for duck.
If you have an abundance of hawthorn berries and foraged fruits, we’d also recommend trying our Foraged Fruit Pastille recipe.
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