Ketchup Leather

What "invented"?? Scraped off the neck of a ketchup bottle would be more like it.

What kind of freak puts ketchup on a hamburger? That's for the fries.

@Nonya: So you put mustard with dill pickle slices? :sick:

Actually I don't object to ketchup / catsup on a burger. I usually order up with lettuce and mayonnaise only.

My main concern is the "cheese". The label on that item always says "Processed Cheese Food." WTH is that? Something you feed to little cheeses to get them to grow up?

Remember Harry Callahan's remark to one of his coworkers: "You don't put ketchup on a hot dog." Good words to live by.

You're right! Hotdogs need chili, kraut, hot mustard or relish in a pinch.

I haven't tried it with ketchup, but I use dried tomatoes. I dehydrate onions, mushrooms, celery, and tomatoes, chop them, mix them together, add sea salt and peppercorns, and then grind it all to a texture a little rougher than coarsely-ground pepper. I work a tablespoon or so into each hamburger patty. It not only adds flavor of its own, it absorbs fat which holds a lot of flavor.

Thanks, Phideaux. I'm always on the lookout for flavor enhancements. Mushrooms are edible sponges and soak up lots of liquid.

@KDP -- in case you're interested (or even if you're not), my usual proportions are: 3lb. bag of yellow onions, 1 lb. mushrooms, 1 head of celery, and 4 baseball-sized tomatoes or 6-8 Roma. It all fits into a quart glass jar.

You have to take care when dehydrating celery because it practically disappears. I generally slice it on the thinnest setting of my mandoline, spread it on a tray, dehydrate a couple of hours, then put it on a tray lined with parchment paper. Otherwise, it shrinks so small, it falls through the trays (I prefer dehydrating trays which are plastic grids rather than repurposed window screen).

I like to make this because I love good food but am basically lazy.

That sounds good Phideaux but sounds like a lot of work too so I do not think it makes you lazy at all. The product above is just a fruit rollup made with tomatoes.

@Patty -- It's far less work than doing it when you need/want it.

I generally wait until onions are on sale (in September, they were $0.84 for 3 pounds, this month, they're $1.89), and do six pounds at once (the most I can get in my dehydrator at one time).

It takes an average of 34 minutes to peel, slice, and arrange them on the trays (yes, I do keep track of such times, it's my nerd side). Every couple of hours, it takes a minute to rearrange the trays for even drying. Then it's about ten minutes to dump them in the food processor to chop them up roughly and then pour them into a jar. Every time I want to add chopped onions to something, I simply scoop out how much I want.

Compare that to having to have some onions on hand in case you'll need them. checking it hasn't gotten a bad spot since you bought it, peeling, slicing, chopping, gathering up all the little flecks of peel that want to flutter away, and wiping down the counter so the next thing you cut won't pick up onion juice. And what do you do when you only need half an onion?

By dehydrating batches of staple items like onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, and peppers, it takes 20% less time, saves more 50% of the price, and makes it wonderfully easy to add a little something to just about anything I'm cooking.

That's great Phideaux, sounds cost effective and convenient to have on hand.

Necessity may be the mother of invention, BUT laziness is also a close contender. @Phideaux~ I don't call myself lazy; I call myself inventive.
My hero comes from the sub-plot in Robert A. Heinlein's book "Time Enough For Love". It is "The Man Who Is Too Lazy To Fail"!