by Sariah M.

Reeser
Have you ever wondered what a
strange word Ketchup is? Where
did it come from? And why do
they call it tomato ketchup?
Isnt that redundant when ketchup
is a tomato sauce? The answer,
of course, is that ketchup didnt
originate with tomatoes or in
Europe for that matter. Ketchup
was made using walnuts, mush-
rooms and other ingredients long
before tomatoes were known to be
edible. The recipe has traveled the
world changing dramatically over
the years evolving into the tasty
tomato-based condiment we enjoy
today.
While modern ketchup is a thick,
sweet and sour sauce of tomatoes;
ketchup in the 1700s referred to a
sauce made of fermented walnuts
or mushrooms. According to food
historians, tomatoes were added to
the recipe around 1800, and sugar
even later, some time after the
American Civil War. Before retail-
ers and grocers carried the product
ketchup was made at home, and
recipes, such as those which fol-
low were common.
But, guess what? Walnuts, mush-
rooms and even oysters arent the
original ingredients of ketchup
either. As it turns out, early
European ketchup recipes were
actually an attempt to imitate a
sauce that came from Asia. The
story tells of an ancient Chinese
emperor who followed the fra-
grant aroma of a fermenting pile
of fsh guts, and discovered ke-
tchup, ge-tchup, or kue-chi-
ap, depending on the dialect,
(which explains the undying
controversy over the spelling
and pronunciation of the word).
Asia has a long-standing tradi-
tion of fermented food products,
and the frst ketchups were thick
pastes made of fermented meat or
fsh used to favor various dishes.
Despite the odd sound of the
word, and whether tomato or
mushroom, homemade or store
bought, ketchup has stood the
test of time to become our most
beloved condiment.
This walnut ketchup recipe, from
the household book kept by Mar-
tha Lloyd, was used by author,
Jane Austens family:
Walnut Ketchup
Take green walnuts and pound
them to a paste. Then put to every
hundred two quarts of vinegar
with a handful of salt. Put it alto-
gether in an earthen pan keeping
it stirring for eight days. Then
squeeze through a coarse cloth
and put it into a well lined sauce-
pan, when it begins to boil skim
it as long as any scum, rinse, and
add to it some cloves, mace, sliced
ginger, sliced nutmeg, Jamaica
peppercorns, little horse radish
with a few shallots. Let this have
one boil up, then pour it into an
earthen pan, and after it is cold
bottle it up dividing the ingredi-
ents equal into each bottle.
In her Book of Household Man-
agement, Mrs. Isabella Beeton
published the recipes for Mush-
room and Oyster Ketchup which
follow:
MUSHROOM KETCHUP.
472. INGREDIENTS.To each
peck of mushrooms 1/2 lb. of salt;
to each quart of mushroom-liquor
1/4 oz. of cayenne, 1/2 oz. of all-
spice, 1/2 oz. of ginger, 2 blades
of pounded mace. Mode.Choose
full-grown mushroom-faps,
and take care they are perfectly
fresh-gathered when the weather
is tolerably dry; for, if they are
picked during very heavy rain,
the ketchup from which they are
made is liable to get musty, and
will not keep long. Put a layer of
them in a deep pan, sprinkle salt
over them, and then another layer
of mushrooms, and so on alter-
nately. Let them remain for a few
hours, when break them up with
the hand; put them in a nice cool
place for 3 days, occasionally stir-
ring and mashing them well, to ex-
tract from them as much juice as
possible. Now measure the quan-
tity of liquor without straining,
and to each quart allow the above
proportion of spices, &c. Put all
into a stone jar, cover it up very
closely, put it in a saucepan of
boiling water, set it over the fre,
and let it boil for 3 hours. Have
ready a nice clean stewpan; turn
into it the contents of the jar, and
let the whole simmer very gently
for 1/2 hour; pour it into a jug,
where it should stand in a cool
place till the next day; then pour
it off into another jug, and strain
it into very dry clean bottles, and
do not squeeze the mushrooms.
To each pint of ketchup add a few
drops of brandy. Be careful not to
shake the contents, but leave all
the sediment behind in the jug;
cork well, and either seal or rosin
the cork, so as perfectly to exclude
the air. When a very clear bright
ketchup is wanted, the liquor must
be strained through a very fne
hair-sieve, or fannel bag, after it
has been very gently poured off;
if the operation is not successful,
it must be repeated until you have
quite a clear liquor. It should be
examined occasionally, and if it is
spoiling, should be reboiled with a
few peppercorns.
OYSTER KETCHUP.
490. INGREDIENTS.Suffcient
oysters to fll a pint measure, 1
pint of sherry, 3 oz.
of salt, 1 drachm of cayenne, 2
drachms of pounded mace.
Mode.Procure the oysters very
fresh, and open suffcient to fll a
pint measure; save
the liquor, and scald the oysters
in it with the sherry; strain the
oysters, and put them
in a mortar with the salt, cayenne,
and mace; pound the whole until
reduced to a pulp,
then add it to the liquor in which
they were scalded; boil it again
fve minutes, and
skim well; rub the whole through
a sieve, and, when cold, bottle and
cork closely. The
corks should be sealed.
The Origins of Ketchup