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Ketchup (or '''catsup''') is a popular Condiment , usually made with ripened Tomato es. The basic ingredients in modern ketchup are tomatoes, Vinegar , Sugar , Salt , Allspice , Clove s, and Cinnamon . Onion s, Celery , and other Vegetable s are frequent additions. In the UK , Australia , South Africa , Malaysia , and New Zealand ketchup is commonly referred to as '''tomato sauce''' or simply '''red sauce'''. 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 Herb s and Spice s. Mushroom ketchup is still available in some countries, such as the UK. Some popular early main ingredients include Anchovy , Oyster , Lobster , Walnut , Kidney Bean , Cucumber , Cranberry , Lemon , and Grape . The largest major commercial distributors of ketchup in the United States are Red Gold , the H. J. Heinz Company and ConAgra Foods (manufacturer of Hunt's brand). HISTORY The word "ketchup" may have come from the Malay ''kēchap'', a fish sauce that does not contain tomatoes. The Malay word means ''taste''. A more direct origin for the word may be the Cantonese dialect (Chinese) phrase ''ke-tsiap'' ( 茄汁 ) which literally means ''eggplant sauce''. The Cantonese phrase for tomato is ''fan-ke'', which means "foreign eggplant". Ketchup in the 1800s referred to any sauce made with Vinegar . As the century progressed, tomato ketchup began its ascent in popularity, influenced by an American enthusiasm for tomatoes. In the ''Sugar House Book'', published in 1801 , a ketchup recipe was given: #''Get tomatoes quite ripe on a dry day, squeeze them with your hands till reduced to a pulp, then put half a pound of fine Salt to one hundred tomatoes, and boil them for two hours.'' #''Stir them to prevent burning.'' #''While hot press them through a fine Sieve , with a Silver Spoon till nought but the skin remains, then add a little Mace , 3 Nutmeg s, Allspice , Clove s, Cinnamon , Ginger , and Pepper to taste.'' #''Boil over a slow fire till quite thick, stir all the time.'' #''Bottle when cold.'' #''One hundred tomatoes will make four or five bottles and keep good for two or three years."'' The salt in this recipe, which served as a Preservative , yields an extremely salty taste. This recipe is important because tomato was not widely accepted by people in North America in the early 1800s. Many believed it was poisonous. '' The Virginia Housewife '' ( 1824 ), an influential 19th-century cookbook written by Mary Randolph , Thomas Jefferson 's cousin, also had a tomato ketchup recipe. A 20th century grape ketchup recipe This Recipe is taken from ''The Inglenook Cook Book'', published in 1906 : : ''Take 1 quart of grape juice, 1 pint of vinegar, 1 pound of sugar, and ground cloves to suit your taste. Boil until quite thick.'' This book also teaches its readers how to make tomato and cucumber ketchup. ]] Heinz introduced the first commercial ketchup in 1876 which 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. also ketchup ." Modern ketchup emerged in the early years of the , 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 Vinegar y 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 http://www.press.uillinois.edu/f01/smith.html) believe were key to the establishment of tomato ketchup as the dominant American condiment. Until Heinz, most commercial ketchups appealed to two of the ness 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 Originally, ketchup was stored in Glass bottles and was difficult to pour. While glass Container s protected ketchup from Moisture and Oxidization , the Physical Properties of ketchup make it difficult to pour smoothly from a glass bottle. Without vigorous shaking, ketchup tends to stick to the inside of the bottle. Physicists explain this by noting that ketchup is a Dilatant Power-law Fluid . The introduction of Polyethylene squeeze Bottle s made it easier to get the ketchup out. Today, glass ketchup bottles are seldom seen outside restaurants, as the plastic squeeze bottles are overwhelmingly more popular with consumers. Since ) have been discontinued. NUTRITION The following table compares the nutritional value of ketchup with raw ripe tomatoes and Salsa , based on information from the USDA Food Nutrient Database.
Ketchup packets from Fast-food Restaurant s:
While it can hardly be considered a health food, Ketchup has been found to a be beneficial source of Lycopene , an antioxident which fights some forms of Cancer. This is particurly 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 Ketchup (the tomato variety) is a Thixotropic substance, which often results in difficulties of removing it from the glass bottles that much ketchup is distributed in. The "common" method (inverting the bottle and tapping the bottom (now at the top)) will often cause the ketchup to suddenly gain enough momentum to begin flowing, and due to the sheer stress on a Thixotropic substance, lose viscosity, and therefore flow even more, causing a significant amount of ketchup to flow out of the bottle. There are better techniques for pouring ketchup that avoid the thixotropic effect One odd but effective trick with the Heinz Ketchup product is to tap the 57 circle on neck label with the heel of your hand, which causes the ketchup to flow. {Link without Title} . 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 ''.
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. Some people prefer the Malayan word "kechap" (spelled ketjap by the Dutch), which may have come from the Chinese in the first place. 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. The exact Chinese Character s for ''kôechiap'' has been disputed:
KETCHUP AND U.S. POLITICS In 1981 , US President Ronald Reagan 's budget director, David Stockman , proposed classifying ketchup as a Vegetable as part of Reagan's Budget cuts for federally financed school lunch programs (it would make it cheaper to satisfy the requirements on vegetable content of lunches). The suggestion was widely ridiculed and the proposal was killed. In ; others suspect "W" more likely refers to Bush's middle initial, which is often used as his nickname. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
Early recipes
Other non-commercial recipes
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