Here’s a few little known facts about ketchup and may clear up the confusion with the name.
Long ago ketchup began as a sauce of anchovies, walnuts, mushrooms, and kidney beans. It is believed that the name is derived from the word koechiap or ke-tsiap, which comes from the Amoy dialect of China. Roughly translated, these words mean the brine of pickled fish or shell fish.
The original ketchup was similar to soy or Worcestershire sauce and included fish brine and various herbs and spices. The early recipe found its way to Malaysia and Indonesia, and then may have traveled with sailors to England.
In the 1700′s the Spanish conquistadors living in Mexico introduced the tomato to ketchup and then took the idea to Europe. Their recipe was more watery and was sometimes called “tomato soy”.
F. & J. Heinz Company began producing and selling ketchup in 1876. By the end of the 19th century, tomato ketchup was the primary type of ketchup sold in the U.S. It wasn’t long before competition set in and now there are 60 different brands of ketchup, all who claim to be the largest distributor of ketchup in the world.
Back in the year 2000, Heinz had the bright idea of adding color to ketchup and the result was green, purple, pink, orange, teal, and blue ketchup. It never took off because frankly, it looked gross. There’s just some things you don’t mess with, and that’s the color of condiments! Sheesh! Is nothing sacred these days?
And speaking of condiments…you never ever ever put ketchup on a Chicago Hot Dog! A Chicago hot dog is steamed, all beef, and never broiled. It’s topped with mustard, onion, sweet pickle relish, a dill pickle spear, tomato slices, pickled sport peppers, and a dash of celery salt. Cucumber slices can be added. But NEVER ketchup…you save that for the side of fries!
Oh, and let’s not forget the brainiac idea from the Reagan White House that ketchup could be reclassified as a vegetable, allowing public schools to cut out a serving of cooked or fresh vegetables from the hot lunch program which would save the government $1 billion in annual savings towards the costs of subsidized meals for low income students.
“Ketchupgate” never got very far, Democrats and Republicans alike put a stop to that and Reagan’s poll numbers showed a big dip when he was perceived as uncaring to the needs of low income children.
Personally, I’m a huge fan of ketchup, I just love the stuff. During my daughter’s college days when she was working as a waitress to make extra money, she told me that the restaurants never refrigerated the ketchup bottles that were on the tables. I was always under the impression that it needed to be refrigerated, but when I looked at the bottle of Heinz Ketchup in my fridge, it just says “for best results, refrigerate after opening”. For best results? I don’t know, I think the “best result” would be NOT to get food poisoning…but that’s just me.
Leave a Comment
No comments yet.
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
