Catching Up with Ketchup
By Veronica MacDonald Ditko
An Accidental Anthropologist
I pour a little red goop on the plate, and my youngest son inevitably says, “More!” My husband and I watch in disbelief as he readily dips anything in ketchup. Neither of us likes it very much. It was actually a bonding thing when we first met.
“Want ketchup?”
“Oh, no thanks, I hate that stuff.”
“Me too!”
What most Americans don’t realize is that tomato ketchup is strictly a national craze. Other countries have ketchup, but not from tomatoes. You can find banana, mango, curry, and others. And if you look on a bottle of Heinz ketchup, it clearly states it is tomato ketchup.
It makes sense that this is American, because from August through October there is a ridiculous abundance of tomatoes. Colonialists were afraid of tomatoes, and would only eat them cooked. So what do you do when you have too much produce? You cook it and preserve it. Vinegar is really good at doing that, and there’s lots of vinegar in ketchup.
Ketchup was a staple in Great Britain starting in the mid-1700s. It was purportedly brought to the country by explorers who went to Malaysia where they saw it being served. The Malay word for sauce is similar to ketchup, or catsup as it is sometimes spelled.
What is interesting though, is that I don’t believe tomato ketchup is still a British favorite. When I studied over there, when you ate fries (which they call chips, and chips are called crisps), the options on the table were salt and malt vinegar. They are incredibly tasty on fries if you haven’t tried them yet.
Despite the fact that I never liked ketchup, I always had a bottle in my fridge. Why? I’ll tell you a little secret. It makes meatloaf taste really good. Because what is it really – tomato, sugar, and vinegar? That, along with about 5,000 other ingredients would make a meatloaf good.
Still, I have to wonder about my youngest. He will eat just about anything with or without ketchup. Does that mean he has discriminating taste? Probably not. But hey, if he likes it, why not let him have it?
Veronica MacDonald Ditko is originally from the Jersey Shore, but married and settled in northern New Jersey. Her journalism career started a decade ago after studying Psychology and Anthropology in Massachusetts. She has written for several newspapers and magazines including The Daily Hampshire Gazette, The Springfield Union News and Sunday Republican, Happi, Chemical Week, The Hawthorne Press, The Jewish Standard, Suite101.com and more.