Ketchup: All-American?

Earlier this week, I came across this article on the NPR site/blog that discusses the “true” origins of one of our favorite, all-American condiments: ketchup. To sum it up, author Lakshmi Gandhi finds that what was at one point known as 鮭汁 (kê-chiap, “fish sauce”) made its journey (with several detours) from Southeast Asia to the United States by at least the 19th century. Of course, this wasn’t without a few alterations—lemons, walnuts, oysters, elderberries, mushrooms, and even beer were all the main ingredients of ketchup at some point (in fact, walnut ketchup was a favorite of novelist Jane Austen!). Tomato ketchup is thought to have originated in the United States as the fruit is native to North America and Europeans believed that the fruit was poisonous. It was originally and widely spelled “catsup”; however, in 1882, Henry J. Heinz deliberately chose the spelling “ketchup” as a way to stand out. Clearly, the popularity of Heinz ketchup in the years soon after up to the present day led to the linguistic change in the word, and became the “ideal” ketchup that we understand today.

More on the topic can be found here