Title: Catsup vs. Ketchup: What’s the Difference? - Writing Explained
Headings: Catsup vs. Ketchup: What’s the Difference?
Catsup vs. Ketchup: What’s the Difference?
What is the Difference Between Catsup and Ketchup?
When to Use Ketchup
History of Ketchup in America
Enter Heinz
When to Use Catsup
Summary

Content: The graph below separates books published just in American English, and, as you can see, it wasn’t until the mid-to-late 1900s that ketchup overtook catsup as the preferred spelling. So, why the change in preference? Well, the first thing you need to remember is that the tomato-based ketchup we now use today wasn’t always how ketchup was made. Tomatoes weren’t actually added to ketchup until the 19th century. This tomato-based variety quickly caught on in the United States during the first few decades of the 1800s, but was primarily produced by small, local farmers. No company was distributing nationally until at least 1837. In other words, there was no national brand that people could identify and symbolize as ketchup, which led to no one ketchup company’s spelling catching on as the industry standard. Whether it was spelled ketchup or catsup was anybody’s guess. Enter Heinz
Heinz, a name now synonymous with ketchup, was actually somewhat of a latecomer to the tomato-based ketchup industry. The company did not release its own branded ketchup until 1867, well into the 19th century.