Catch Up With a Little History of Ketchup

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I have a good friend who puts ketchup on everything. And when I say everything, I mean it. I’ve watched her pour it all over her tacos and drown her macaroni and cheese in it. I’ve even dined with her in a Chinese restaurant when she’d asked the server for a bottle (sidenote: this created quite a scramble in the kitchen). Look, there’s nothing I like better than dipping my French fries in a pool of ketchup, but Chinese food? No way.

Well, apparently, my friend is more on track than me. Turns out, ketchup was likely invented in ancient China as a fermented fish sauce — though the original sauce, called ge-tchup or keu-chiap, differed vastly from the common table condiment we use today and wasn’t made from tomatoes. As with many Eastern delicacies, ketchup made its way to Europe via traders in the 1600s. There, it was mixed with various ingredients such as mushrooms, nuts, shallots, horse-radish, nutmeg, and even anchovies (yuck). Tomatoes were first incorporated into ketchup in the 18th century, and the modern version we all know and love came into popularity around the 1920s.

Interesting point, tomatoes were considered poisonous because their leaves contain toxic compounds. It wasn’t until the late 1600s when an English physician named John Gerard claimed cooked tomatoes, as opposed to raw ones, were edible. By the mid-1700s, English doctors were claiming tomatoes (or love apples) not only aided in the treatment of digestive and liver-related ailments, they were also an aphrodisiac. Eventually, tomatoes made their way to America where, according to Thomas Jefferson, British doctor John de Sequeyra introduced them to the commonwealth of Virginia. Sequeyra was reputed to say that a person who ate enough of these love apples would never die. Yet one more good reason for my friend to eat ketchup on everything.

Of course, eventually, the medical community came to dispute the tomato’s medical and performance enhancement properties. Tomato pills, which were touted to “cure all your ills”, soon disappeared from grocery store shelves. So where did that leave our ketchup, a.k.a. fish sauce?

Enter Henry John Heinz, who founded the H.J. Heinz Company in 1869. By the late 1800s, glassmakers figured out how to manufacture inexpensive glass flasks. This created a way for food companies to more easily transport their products ­— products like ketchup. Being a smart entrepreneur, Mr. Heinz saw an opportunity for his thicker, sweeter version, and I don’t think there’s a person in America today who hasn’t at least heard of Heinz ketchup.

So, where does ketchup fit into the old West you ask? Well, like most things, recipes and bottles traveled with pioneers and prospectors and homesteaders, along with tomato seeds and canned tomatoes. As you’d expect, cowboys added their own twist to this favorite table condiment, leaving out the sugar and adding spicy ingredients like peppers and onions. The perfect addition to flavor up a bowl of beans or a T-bone steak.

Sadly, for my friend, ketchup sales have been on the decline with salsa now outselling this former “cure for all your ills”. But don’t tell her. I’m sure she’ll ask for a bottle the next time we go out.

Fun question: are you a ketchup lover and, if yes, what food do you most like to put it on? Like I said earlier, I’m a French fry girl.

 

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Cathy McDavid has been penning Westerns for Harlequin since 2005. With over 55 titles in print and 1.6 million-plus books sold, Cathy is also a member of the prestigious Romance Writers of America’s Honor Roll. This “almost” Arizona native and mother of grown twins is married to her own real-life sweetheart. After leaving the corporate world seven years ago, she now spends her days penning stories about good looking cowboys riding the range, busting broncs, and sweeping gals off their feet — oops, no. Make that winning the hearts of feisty, independent women who give the cowboys a run for their money. It a tough job, but she’s willing to make the sacrifice.

44 thoughts on “Catch Up With a Little History of Ketchup”

  1. I like ketchup on some things such as fries, burgers, and hotdogs.
    Does anyone remember “the Ketchup Advisory Board ” from Prairie Home Companion? “Ketchup for the good times, Ketchup for the special times. Ketchup-it gives shy people the strength to get up and do what needs to be done.”

  2. I like ketchup on my fries too. Sometimes I put it on a hot dog or hamburger. I don’t eat much fish, but when I do, I like a little ketchup on it too.

  4. I like ketchup on my fries . My son puts ketchup on his eggs, dips his meat in it, puts it on his fried potatoes and on his hamburgers.

  5. I definitely fall into the non-ketchup lover’s category. I dislike it so much you won’t find it in my house!
    I tolerate tomatos. My garden produces hundreds of pounds that I give away to those who can’t get anything to grow (same goes for all kinds of peppers.) Oddly enough, you’ll find Salsa and tomato-based Bar-B-Que sauce among other condiments in my refrigerator but never ketchup. As for dipping fries – Ranch Dressing or nothing.

  8. I’m not a fan of ketchup. If I eat seafood that is strong, I will put the smallest amount of ketchup on it. Otherwise, I leave it alone unless it’s made into bbq sauce.

  10. I like it on scrambled eggs, french fries, hash browns, hamburgers, and hotdogs. My favorite is spicy ketchup.

  11. Hamburgers, French fries, in homemade BBQ sauce, and a few other things, but never hot dogs.

  13. I do like ketchup, I put it on a lot of food, hamburgers,hotdogs,eggs,fried potatoes,French fries,tacos,burritos,pinto beans & ham,but the weirdest food I have put it on might be green beans.

  14. I love tomatoes but do not like ketchup on anything. I do add some to my baked beans and spaghetti sauce when making those but that is about it for me.

  16. I use it on burgers, hot dogs, bologna,meatloaf, french fries, and tator tots. I had an uncle who used it on his eggs.

  18. I read somewhere that tomatoes were considered poisonous because back then, they ate off lead plates, and the acidic juice of the tomatoes leached up the lead, so if you ate too many of them, you died of lead poisoning. I love ketchup with my fries; that’s about the only thing I eat it with. When I was a kid, I put it on my mom’s goulash.

  19. I love ketchup as much as the next person, but ketchup on mac and cheese? I’ll pass! But I love it on french fries and hamburgers.

  21. This was very interesting. I had no idea. I love learning new things. Waving hello to Cathy. (Don’t enter me, I just stopped by to say hello)

  22. I do like ketchup on fries, hamburgers, and hotdog. It is good on fried egg sandwiches, too. I made grape ketchup one year when I found a recipe in a magazine. It was actually pretty good and not that much different from tomato ketsup.

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