‘Tis the season when tomatoes reign supreme.
Heirloom, Juliet, Roma, Kumato. Entire festivals are dedicated to this native fruit. But I don’t want to talk tomatoes; I want to talk about their red-headed stepchild, as it were.
I mean, of course, ketchup.
As American as the condiment seems, it might surprise you to learn that it, in fact, comes from Asia. Even the word “ketchup” is derived from the Chinese word “kê-tsiap,” which is a sauce made from fermented fish.
According to a Stuff You Should Know podcast episode titled “How Ketchup Works” to which I recently listened (yes, really), it is believed the sauce made its way to Britain sometime during the early 1700s, where fermented fish was replaced with other savory ingredients such as mushrooms, walnuts and anchovies.
Though ketchup arrived in America with the early colonists, it was not until the early 1800s that the first tomato found its way into the recipe, which debuted in an American cookbook. Original ingredients included tomato pulp, spices and brandy.
These days, most ketchups are made with ground tomatoes, vinegar, sugar and spices. But recently, new flavors have been introduced. For example, there is now curry ketchup, balsamic-flavored ketchup and truffle ketchup, among others.
Do I taste an emerging food trend?