by Liane Laskoske

Created on: January 20, 2008

Whether you put it on fries, steak, or even cottage cheese as former US President Nixon did, ketchup is the number one condiment in the US. However, it has much older roots than even Mr. Heinz's 1872 version.

Dutch and British sailors brought Ketsaip, a pickled fish sauce, from China in the 1600's. The British soon developed varieties of ketchup that included such ingredients as mushrooms, nuts, anchovies, and oysters.

Elizabeth Smith published the first ketchup recipe in her 1727 book "The Compleat Housewife", and included anchovies, shallots, ginger, nutmeg, and lemon peel in her recipe. In 1830, for less than 50 cents a bottle, you could buy a New England farmer's version of ketchup.

There were several ketchup manufacturers before JH Heinz debuted his version of the condiment at the Philadelphia Fair in 1872 with the recipe still used today.

Some manufacturers were using coal tar to enhance the red color of their ketchup or used concentrated tomato pulp stored under less than sanitary conditions. The Pure Food Act of the 1900s limited what could and could not be used in food production.

The FDA today has set down regulations of what exactly constitutes ketchup, and even regulates the thickness and consistency of the red sauce.

Though in Britain mushroom ketchup is very popular, here in the US people prefer the same tomato ketchup made by JH Heinz, but there are a few variations. Spicy ketchup and green ketchup are the two newest versions, and on the site http://www.ketchup.wonderland.org/ , you can even find a recipe for Blueberry Ketchup and Tomatoless Ketchup.

A restaurant in LA has taken ketchup as the theme for their eatery, an upscale place for this simple sauce, The Ketchup Restaurant. http://www.losangeles.com/ketchup-restaurant/ . There is even a musical group called Las Ketchup (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Ketchup ) , thus named because their father was a famous flamenco guitarist nicknamed The Tomato.

So, put it on your steak, your fries, your scrambled eggs, but say a cheer for this king of condiments and try it today.

Other sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketchup
http://w ww.heinzketchup.com/Flash.asp

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