Ketchup (or less commonly catsup) also known as Red Sauce or Tomato Sauce is a popular condiment, usually made with ripened tomatoes. The basic ingredients in modern ketchup are tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, salt, allspice, cloves, and cinnamon. Onions, celery, and other vegetables are frequent additions. In the UK, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, Malaysia, Iran and New Zealand and the Middle East, the terms tomato sauce, red gravy or red sauce are variously used to refer to a vinegar-less variant of ketchup or the variety discussed in this article.

Ketchup has not always been made out of tomatoes. It started out as a general term for sauce, typically made of mushrooms or fish brine with herbs and spices. Mushroom ketchup is still available in some

countries, such as the UK. Some popular early main ingredients include blueberry, anchovy, oyster, lobster, walnut, kidney bean, cucumber, cranberry, lemon, and grape.

The largest major commercial distributors of ketchup in the United States are the H. J. Heinz Company, Hunt's, Del Monte Foods, Red Gold, and Brooks Ketchup. Red Gold is the largest privately owned tomato processing company in the world and produces more than 90% of the ketchup that is found in the private label category.

Ketchup is often used for chips/fries, hamburgers, sandwiches and grilled/fried meats. Ketchup with mayonnaise forms the base of Thousand Island dressing. In communities where salad dressing was limited, cooks commonly combined mayonaise and ketchup for dressing. This combination was commonly referred to as "salad dressing", not to be confused with commercial salad dressing, like Miracle Whip. Ketchup is also typically used as a base for barbecue sauce, especially in the Southeast. Ketchup is often eaten on hot dogs, but this is considered unacceptable by most enthusiast and some restaurants refuse to serve the two together.

History

Early origins
Ketchup existed before anyone outside the Americas had ever seen a tomato. Originally this sauce was made out of pickled fish. It originated in Eastern Asia; the word ketchup is used in Chinese, Malay and Indonesian (e.g., kecap manis - traditional spelling 'kitjap manis'). English and Dutch sailors brought the Asian ketchup to Europe, where many flavourings, such as mushrooms, anchovies and nuts, were added to the basic fish sauce. Whether the tomato was also added to ketchup in England is not certain, and it is likely that this important event first happened in the USA.

Tomato ketchup
By 1801 a recipe for tomato ketchup was printed in an American cook book, the "Sugar House Book". [1] In 1824 a ketchup recipe appeared in The Virginia Housewife, an influential 19th-century cookbook written by Mary Randolph, Thomas Jefferson's cousin.

As the century progressed, tomato ketchup began its ascent in popularity in the USA, influenced by the American enthusiasm for tomatoes. Tomato ketchup was sold locally by farmers. A man named Jonas Yerks (or Yerkes) is believed to be the first man to have made tomato ketchup a national phenomenon. By 1837 he had produced and distributed the condiment nationally. Shortly, other companies followed suit. F. & J. Heinz launched their tomato ketchup in 1876.

Small packets of ketchup and mustardHeinz tomato ketchup was advertised: "Blessed relief for Brother and the other men in the household!"

The Webster's Dictionary of 1913 defined "catchup" as a "table sauce made from mushrooms, tomatoes, walnuts, etc. [Written also ketchup]."

Modern ketchup emerged in the early years of the 20th century, out of a debate over the use of sodium benzoate as a preservative in condiments.[2] Harvey W. Wiley, the "father" of the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S., challenged the safety of benzoate. In response, entrepreneurs, particularly Henry J. Heinz, pursued an alternative recipe that eliminated the need for that preservative.

Prior to Heinz (and his fellow innovators), commercial tomato ketchups of that time were watery and thin, in part due to the use of unripe tomatoes, which were low in pectin. They were also less vinegary than modern ketchups; by pickling ripe tomatoes, the need for benzoate was eliminated without spoilage or degradation in flavor. But the changes driven by the desire to eliminate benzoate also produced changes that some experts (such as Andrew F. Smith) believe were key to the establishment of tomato ketchup as the dominant American condiment.

Until Heinz, most commercial ketchups appealed to two of the basic tastes: bitterness and saltiness. But the switch to ripe tomatoes and more tomato solids added savoriness, and the major increase in the concentration of vinegar added sourness and pungency to the range of sensations experienced during its consumption. And because the elimination of benzoate was also accompanied by a doubling of the sweetness of ketchup, a balanced stimulation of all five types of taste buds produced an almost gestalt effect.

In the past, ketchup was produced from fresh tomatoes after harvesting. Vacuum evaporation made it possible to turn tomatoes into a very thick tomato paste that is easy to store at room temperature. This enables a factory to produce ketchup throughout the year.

Later innovations

worldwide, including Great Britain, Australia and Germany) as the plastic squeeze bottles are overwhelmingly more popular with consumers there.

In October, 2000, Heinz introduced colored ketchup products, which eventually included green, purple, pink, orange, teal, and blue. These popular products were made by adding food coloring to the traditional ketchup. These products (as of January 2006) have been discontinued.

Nutrition
While it can hardly be considered a health food, ketchup has been found to be a beneficial source of lycopene, an antioxidant which fights some forms of cancer. This is particularly true of the organic brands of ketchup. In fact, organic brands were found to contain three times as much lycopene as non-organic brands.

Viscosity (or how to get it out of the bottle)
Ketchup (the tomato variety) is a thixotropic substance, which often results in difficulties of removing it from a glass bottle. Often a glass bottle will appear to be blocked. The "common" method (inverting the bottle and hitting the bottom with the heel of the hand) can often cause the ketchup to suddenly gain enough momentum to begin flowing, and due to the shear stress on a thixotropic substance, lose viscosity, and therefore flow even more, causing a significant amount of ketchup to flow out of the bottle (making a mess). Some people, seeking to avoid this problem, remove the product with the aid of a butter knife thrust into the opening. But this technique is generally slow and inefficient.

There is a better technique that avoids both the thixotropic effect and the need for an inefficient tool. Known widely among caterers, it involves inverting the bottle and forcefully tapping its upper neck with two fingers (index and middle finger together). Specifically, with the Heinz Ketchup product, one taps the 57 circle on the neck. This helps the ketchup flow by applying correct G-forces.[7] Another solution to this problem appeared with the introduction of plastic squeeze bottles. More recently, Heinz and others have introduced an "upside-down" bottle, which further remedies the problem by keeping the remaining ketchup at the mouth of the bottle. These bottles are also fitted with a control valve in the nozzle designed to eliminate the buildup of ketchup in the cap after use.

Etymology

Early uses in English
The word entered the English language in England during the late seventeenth century, appearing in print as catchup and later as ketchup. The following is a list of early quotations collected by the Oxford English Dictionary.

• 1690, B. E., A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew
• Catchup: a high East-India Sauce.
• 1711, Charles Lockyer, An Account of the Trade in India 128
• Soy comes in Tubbs from Jappan, and the best Ketchup from Tonquin; yet good of both sorts are made and sold very cheap in China.
• 1730, Jonathan Swift, A Panegyrick on the Dean Wks. 1755 IV. I. 142
• And, for our home-bred British cheer, Botargo, catsup, and caveer.
• 1748, Sarah Harrison, The Housekeeper's Pocket-Book and Compleat Family Cook. i. (ed. 4) 2,
• I therefore advise you to lay in a Store of Spices, ... neither ought you to be without ... Kitchup, or Mushroom Juice.
• 1751, Mrs. Hannah Glasse, Cookery Bk. 309
• It will taste like foreign Catchup.
• 1817, George Gordon Byron, Beppo viii,
• Buy in gross ... Ketchup, Soy, Chili~vinegar, and Harvey.
• 1832, Vegetable Substances Used for the Food of Man 333
• One ... application of mushrooms is ... converting them into the sauce called Catsup.
• 1840, Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge (1849) 91/1
• Some lamb chops (breaded, with plenty of ketchup).
• 1845, Eliza Acton, Modern Cookery v. (1850) 136 (L.)
• Walnut catsup.
• 1862, Macmillan's Magazine. Oct. 466
• He found in mothery catsup a number of yellowish globular bodies.
• 1874, Mordecai C. Cooke, Fungi; Their Nature, Influence and Uses 89
• One important use to which several ... fungi can be applied, is the manufacture of ketchup.
• The spelling catsup seems to have appeared first from the pen of Jonathan Swift, in 1730.

The China connection
The most popular theory is that the word ketchup was derived from "koe-chiap" or "ke-tsiap" in the Amoy dialect of China, where it meant the brine of pickled fish or shellfish[8]. Some people prefer the Malayan word "kechap" (spelled ketjap by the Dutch), which may have come from the Chinese in the first place. The Malay word means taste. And in some time in the late seventeenth century, the name and some samples might have arrived in England where it appeared in print as "catchup" in 1690 and then as "ketchup" in 1711. These names stuck with the British, who quickly appropriated them for their own pickled condiments of anchovies or oysters.