Jun. 30, 2010 - Issue #767: The Bestest of Edmonton 2010

Provenance

History of ketchup

Ketchup is the world's number one condiment in terms of sales and consumption. It is usually made from tomatoes or tomato concentrate, vinegar, corn syrup, sugar, salt, celery extracts and various spices, including garlic powder.

The word, "ketchup" (sometimes written catsup) comes from the Amoy dialect of Chinese, where it meant the brine of pickled fish and was pronounced "ketsiap." In the 1500s it made its way to Malaysia where it became kechap and ketjap in Indonesia. In the 1600s Dutch and British seamen brought back this salty pickled fish sauce, which was more like soy, Worcestershire or oyster sauce than the sweet, vinegary substance we call ketchup today.

Variations in both the name and the ingredients quickly developed. Mushrooms were a favourite British additive. They also experimented with anchovies, oysters and walnuts.

The first ketchup recipe was printed in 1727 in Elizabeth Smith's The Compleat Housewife and called for anchovies, shallots, vinegar, white wine, cloves, ginger, mace, nutmeg, pepper and lemon peel. The first North American recipe for ketchup was published in Nova Scotia in 1812 by James Meas. To increase its potential popularity, he wrote that his recipe was influenced by French cuisine, but he was never able to prove that.

Ketchup was sold nationwide in the US by 1837 through the entrepreneurship of Jonas Yerkes, who sold the product in quart and pint bottles. He used the refuse of tomato canning—skins, cores, green tomatoes, and lots of sugar and vinegar.

By 1900 there were 100 manufacturers of ketchup. But the cornerstone for the world of ketchup was set down when, in 1872, HJ Heinz added ketchup to his line of pickled products and formally presented it at the Philadelphia fair. The Heinz formula has not changed since, and has become the standard by which other ketchups are rated.

As many recent news articles indicate, ketchup has a real and documentable health benefit. It contains lycopene, an antioxidant associated with decreased cancer risk. The health benefit is probably not enough to cancel out the negative effects of the fries and greasy hamburgers ketchup is often put on, however.

Although tomatoes yield a bunch of health benefits, scientists have discovered there are even more benefits from tomatoes that have been cooked and processed. Tomato paste, tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes and the like are now widely encouraged.

As an amusing side note to all this, a few years after Heinz presented his ketchup in Philadelphia, he launched major advertising initiatives to help make ketchup a household word. The initial advertising phrase was "Blessed relief for Mother and other women in the household!" vueweekly.com comments: powered by Disqus