Title: Where Did Ketchup Come From? | culinarylore.com
Headings: Where Did Ketchup Come From?
Where Did Ketchup Come From?
Who Invented Ketchup?
Where Did Ketchup Originate?
Etymology of the Word Ketchup
Ketchup versus Catsup
1895 Heinz Keystone Ketchup Recipe
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Content: Old-time bottle of Mushroom Ketchup
Image via wikimedia
Since homemade tomato ketchup was so difficult to make, requiring hours to cook down the initial watery slurry, which had to be stirred constantly, Henry J. Heinz “came to the rescue” with pre-cooked bottled ketchup. The Heinz company still sells more than half the ketchup sold in the U.S. and it is hardly ever made at home anymore, however, the company, despite popular belief, was not the very first to produce commercial ketchup. Mushroom and walnut ketchup had been bottled in England much earlier and bottled tomato ketchup appeared in America at least as early as 1830 and many other bottled ketchups were sold before Heinz and Noble came on the scene, producing tomato and walnut ketchups in 1872, before going bankrupt and reemerging eventually as the H.J. Heinz company. Tomato ketchup did not become an important product for the company until the 1880’s when Heinz began patenting ketchup bottles. The sweet sauce we know today bears no relationship, save the name, to it’s culinary origins. You can read a comprehensive history of the condiment in Pure Ketchup: A History of America’s National Condiment, with Recipes by Andrew F. Smith. It’s amazing that ketchup can fill an entire book! Ketchup versus Catsup
The debate over the proper spelling of the word is quite silly, since, as you can see, it has been