G’ma Brown’s Tomato Sauce

This is G’ma (Olive) Brown’s delicious Tomato Sauce recipe, and the one that The Home Paddock features as the (controversial) theme of the book. It is rich, and a total flavour bomb if you’re looking for a new recipe to zhuzh up your next delicious meal! Thank you, Lois, for generously sharing your family recipe for us to enjoy.

INGREDIENTS:

4 lb (1.8 kg) Ripe Tomatoes

1-1.5 Tbsp Salt

1 lb (450 g) Brown Sugar

1 pt (473 g) Apple Cider Vinegar

3 Onions

3 Apples (or pears)

4 cloves Garlic

Flavour Bomb:

1 tsp each of: Whole Cloves, Black Peppercorns, Allspice, Nutmeg, and 1 tsp of ground ginger (or a thumbnail of fresh ginger).

2 inches (5 cm) Parmesan Rind.

Muslin cloth *Fun fact: we sometimes cut off the leg of a pair of pantyhose (stockings) an tied the spices inside with a knot at each end-clean ones of course!

METHOD:

1.    Peel and core apples. Chop roughly.

2.    Peel onions and garlic. Chop roughly.

3.    Roughly chop the unpeeled tomatoes.

4.    Place in a large saucepan with the vinegar.

5.    Simmer gently for 1 hour.

6.    Put cloves, black pepper, allspice, nutmeg, and ginger in a bowl along with the parmesan (leave out if you are vegan or dairy free). Pour everything into the muslin cloth and tie the knot.

7. Rub through what has already been simmered, in a course sieve and return to saucepan along with the ingredients in the muslin bag.

8.    Simmer for 1 hour.

9.   Bottle while warm, into sterilized bottles.

Enjoy!