Mike's
Bloody Mary Mix ~ by
Mike Kissel
1 large kettle of washed,
cored, and quartered tomatoes. Use your favorite kettle, and fill to about ¾
full. My kettle is pretty big, and I typically use about a ½ bushel or
so of tomatoes. Start cooking the tomatoes on medium heat. Once they start to
produce some juice, dip some out and combine the following items in a blender:
5 large onions
1 large head of garlic – 8 or so cloves, or to taste
1 bunch of celery 6-8 green bell peppers
Basically, you just dipper out enough juice to put all of this stuff through
the blender, then dump it all back in with the tomatoes. Continue cooking until
the tomatoes are very juicy. The time on this can vary, it depends on what kind
of tomatoes you are using. I like to use a big juicy type (not Romas), and it’s
really best if they are very ripe. They produce more juice and cook down faster.
Once they have cooked down, strain them using your favorite method. I use a
foley food mill, with a fine sieve. This gets out all of the tomato seeds and
skins. Put the juice back into the kettle, then add:
10 oz. horseradish
4-5 tsp. of red hot or other pepper sauce (or more or less to taste)
3/4 c. sugar
2/3 c. lemon juice
2 T. salt
1/3 cup of Worcestershire sauce
Heat on medium heat until the sugar dissolves and it is all well blended. Pressure
can in quart jars, 30 minutes at 10 lbs. pressure. Or, you can freeze it.
To serve, pour over ice and add vodka and additional pepper sauce if desired.
The classic stir stick is a stalk of celery, but a big dill pickle spear or
other pickled veggies work well too.