What was ketchup originally used for

Ketchup is America's favorite condiment and can be found in 97 percent of kitchens across the country.

But you may be surprised to learn that this ubiquitous accompaniment to French fries wasn't born in the U. Instead, ketchup has its origins in China and began as a pickled fish sauce. After a few hundred years and several different versions, the ketchup we know and love today was created. The word ketchup is derived from the Chinese word ke-tsiap , meaning a pickled fish sauce.

This mixture was mainly added to recipes to season a dish, versus served as a condiment. It is believed that this fish sauce made its way from Vietnam to the southeastern part of China , where it became a standard food item.

From there, it traveled to Malaysia and Indonesia where its name morphed into kechap and ketjap respectively. Here, seventeenth-century English sailors discovered the delights of this Chinese seasoning and brought it west where cooks tried to replicate the dark sauce. As the Chinese version is more akin to a Worcestershire sauce , the British used ingredients such as anchovies or oysters, mushrooms, and walnuts to recreate those flavors.

In turn, ketchup came to mean a condiment consisting of mushrooms. The English settlers brought this mushroom ketchup to America, where it continued to gradually go through various changes. Too Sober See All Drinks. Dining Hall Dorm Lyfe Perfect for when you're Broke See All How To.

See All Videos. That email doesn't look right. A relatively new company called Heinz introduced its famous formulation in , which contained tomatoes, distilled vinegar, brown sugar, salt and various spices. They also pioneered the use of glass bottles, so customers could see what they were buying.

Tomato-based ketchup slowly became the ubiquitous form of the condiment in the U. Today, Heinz is the best-selling brand of ketchup in the United States, with more than million bottles sold each year. With the rise of commercial ketchup, do-it-yourself recipes have all but gone extinct. And at least for Americans, it's impossible to imagine ketchup as anything other than bright red and tomato-y.

But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Live TV. All rights reserved. It is a dynamic red concoction. At once savory and sweet, with just the right amount of puckering twang, it is slathered and squirted onto our favorite foods. Share Tweet Email. Read This Next Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London.

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