The chances are that when you think of ketchup it’s a thick tomato sauce – a store-cupboard staple –that goes particularly well with Friday night’s fish and chips or slathered on an American-style hamburger.
As you might suspect, this type of ketchup is a relatively modern invention. Although tomatoes were first domesticated in what is now Mexico and transported to Europe following Spanish colonisation in the 1500s, they took a few hundred years to be fully incorporated into local cuisines. In fact, tomato ketchup wasn’t sold commercially until the mid-19th century, with the famous Heinz brand only launching in Pennsylvania in 1876.
The original ‘ketchup’ actually hails from south-east Asia, where it started life as a salty, fermented, fish sauce. Variously known as ‘catsup’, ‘catchup’ or ‘kitchup’, the name most likely comes from the Chinese word kôe-chiap, which was used to refer to the brine of pickled fish as far back as the sixth century AD. The first English-language recipes date from the 17th century, when British travellers and sailors encountered the sauce in the far east and were inspired to create their own versions back at home.
Denne historien er fra March 2024-utgaven av BBC History UK.
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Denne historien er fra March 2024-utgaven av BBC History UK.
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