Ketchup is the go-to condiment for foodies almost everywhere. While currently the sauce is synonymous with tomatoes, has that always been the case?
PETALING JAYA: When you're having some French fries, you would either take it with chilli sauce or tomato ketchup (or for some, mayonnaise).
It's tangy, salty and goes well with fries, nuggets, burgers or other meals. But has this condiment always been made out of tomatoes?
Verdict:
FALSE
Yes, while many always associate this fruit (or vegetable) to be the basis of the sauce, it was not made of it until 1812.
Historians believe that the word 'ketchup' comes from the Hokkien Chinese word 'kê-tsiap', the name of a sauce derived from fermented fish.
It is believed that traders brought fish sauce from Vietnam to southeastern China.
It was from here, the British tried to replicate the fermented fish sauce after returning home from their travels.
At this point, ketchup was made out of ingredients such as mushrooms, oysters, mussels, walnuts, celery and fruits like plums and peaches (and these variants were not red).
Usually, these ingredients were either boiled down into a syrup-like consistency or left to sit with salt for extended periods.
These methods would create a salty, spicy sauce that could last a long time.
And in 1812, scientist and horticulturist James Mease published the first known tomato ketchup recipe. He wrote that the choicest ketchup came from "love apples," as tomatoes were then called. (During that time, some believed tomatoes had aphrodisiac powers.)
Later in 1876, a then relatively new company called Heinz introduced its famous ketchup formula which contained tomatoes, distilled vinegar, brown sugar, salt and various spices.
The company also pioneered the use of glass bottles, so customers could see the content of their purchase.
The tomato-based ketchup slowly became the ubiquitous form of the condiment across the United States and Europe. Today, Heinz is the best-selling brand of ketchup in the USA, with more than 650 million bottles sold each year.
And the rest of it is history.
Interestingly enough, as reported in one of our previous stories, this condiment was once considered medicine
So, the next time you share your fries with some friends, you can tell them this cool fact about one of the world's well-known condiments.
Source:
1. https://www.history.com/
2. https://www.
3. https://www.epicurious.com/
4. https://nerdish.io/topics/
