Happy National Ketchup Day! On June 5, today observes America's most popular condiment! This goes along with its history as well.
THE AMAZING SHORT HISTORY OF KETCHUP
Have you ever wondered where or how this tomato-based condiment came to be? Interestingly, ketchup has a long and mixed history.
In the early days of America, there was very little concern for food safety.
Sadly, it wasn't uncommon for dishonest shop owners to sell meat and other items to their customers that were going bad, and in some cases not even safe to eat.
To offset this not so flavorful issue, most shop owners also sold catchup, sometimes called ketchup.
This thick sauce that derived from a Chinese pickled fish sauce and was used to hide the off flavor than anything else.
There was no standard for this condiment, it could be made from anything, with any assortment of ingredients.
F. & J HEINZ® COMPANY
In 1876, the F. & J. Heinz® Company began selling “tomato ketchup,” and it was a big hit. Then others started to sell tomato ketchup in name only.
However, this was bad for the Heinz® company because they were competing against other companies that didn't use fresh products and could undercut the cost.
So Mr. Heinz sent his son to Washington D.C: his task was to lobby U.S. Congress for strict standards to ensure the American people were getting safe wholesome foods for the family dinner table.
The efforts of the Heinz® company was instrumental in developing what today we call the FDA.
NATIONAL KETCHUP DAY TRIVIA
1. Ketchup (often spelled catsup in American English) is the dominant term in American English and Canadian English, with “catsup” being the prominent term in some southern American states.
2. The spelling catsup first appeared in 1730 in a Jonathan Swift short story.
3. The Webster’s Dictionary of 1913 defined ‘catchup’ as: “table sauce made from mushrooms, tomatoes, walnuts, etc
4. Ketchup likely entered the English language from the Malay or Chinese word kicap (pron. “kichap”) meaning “fish sauce.”
5. Some ketchup in the U.S. is labeled “Fancy”. This is a USDA grade, related to thickness. Fancy ketchup has a higher tomato solid concentration than other USDA grades.
An original early recipe for “Tomata Catsup” from 1817
1. Gather a gallon of fine, red, and full ripe tomatas; mash them with one pound of salt.
2. Let them rest for three days, press off the juice, and to each quart add a quarter of a pound of anchovies, two ounces of shallots, and an ounce of ground black pepper.
3. Boil up together for half an hour, strain through a sieve, and put to it the following spices; a quarter of an ounce of mace, the same of allspice and ginger, half an ounce of nutmeg, a drachm of coriander seed, and half a drachm of cochineal.
4. Pound all together; let them simmer gently for twenty minutes, and strain through a bag: when cold, bottle it, adding to each bottle a wineglass of brandy. It will keep for seven years.
(By the mid-1850s, the anchovies had been dropped)
MORE NATIONAL KETCHUP DAY TRIVIA
• 1718 Thomas Chippendale, famous furniture designer and maker was born
• 1856 The first Vegetarian Community was established in Kansas.
• 1876 Foil wrapped bananas are sold for a dime at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Bananas become a popular treat for the first time in the U.S. when word spread about how delicious they were.
• 1877 New York taxed oleomargarine to protect the dairy industry.
• 1883 Horlick’s developed the process to dehydrate milk, and patented it in 1883, calling it Malted Milk. Horlick’s originally produced a food for babies and invalid’s, that could be shipped without spoiling.
• 1934 R.I.P. Charles Francis Jenkins. An inventor, Jenkins is best known as an early television pioneer. Among his many inventions was a cone-shaped drinking cup.
• 1977 The Apple II, the first personal computer went on sale.
1977 Alice Cooper’s pet boa constrictor died after its dinner of a rat bit it first.
• 2007 Food scientist Edwin Traisman died at age 91. He helped develop Cheez Whiz for Kraft and later helped develop methods to standardize the French fries served at McDonald’s restaurants. He also worked on research into the risks of various strains of E. coli bacteria.
Today, June 5, we celebrate ketchup as not only the top condiment of America, but the first to have a national standard.
What food(s) do you like to put ketchup on?
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