Ketchup origin of the word

Ketchup

A typical dish of tomato ketchup
Type	Condiment
Place of origin	United Kingdom (Mushroom variant) United States (Tomato variant)
Main ingredients	Tomatoes (or other main ingredients), sugar (or high fructose corn syrup), vinegar, salt, spices, and seasonings
Food energy (per serving)	103 per serving (serving size 1 tbsp) kcal
Cookbook: Ketchup   Media: Ketchup

Ketchup or catsup is a table condiment with a sweet and sour flavor. The unmodified term («ketchup») now typically refers to tomato ketchup,^[1] although early recipes used egg whites, mushrooms, oysters, grapes, mussels, or walnuts, among other ingredients.^[2][3]

Tomato ketchup is made from tomatoes, sugar, and vinegar, with seasonings and spices. The spices and flavors vary, but commonly include onions, allspice, coriander, cloves, cumin, garlic, and mustard, and sometimes include celery, cinnamon, or ginger.^{[citation needed]} The market leader in the United States (60% market share) and the United Kingdom (82%) is Heinz Tomato Ketchup.^[4][5] Tomato ketchup is most often used as a condiment to dishes that are usually served hot and are fried or greasy: french fries and other potato dishes, hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken tenders, hot sandwiches, meat pies, cooked eggs, and grilled or fried meat. Ketchup is sometimes used as the basis for, or as one ingredient in, other sauces and dressings, and the flavor may be replicated as an additive flavoring for snacks, such as potato chips.^[6]

History

Mushroom ketchup

In the United Kingdom, ketchup was historically prepared with mushrooms as a primary ingredient, rather than tomatoes.^[7][8][9] Ketchup recipes began to appear in British and then American cookbooks in the 18th century. The term ketchup first appeared in 1682.^[10] In the United States, mushroom ketchup dates back to at least 1770, and was prepared by British colonists in the Thirteen Colonies.^[11]

Tomato ketchup

Many variations of ketchup were created, but the tomato-based version did not appear until around a century after other types. An early recipe for «Tomata Catsup» from 1817 includes anchovies:^[12]

1. Gather a gallon of fine, red, and full ripe tomatas; mash them with one pound of salt.
2. Let them rest for three days, press off the juice, and to each quart add a quarter of a pound of anchovies, two ounces of shallots, and an ounce of ground black pepper.
3. Boil up together for half an hour, strain through a sieve, and put to it the following spices; a quarter of an ounce of mace, the same of allspice and ginger, half an ounce of nutmeg, a drachm of coriander seed, and half a drachm of cochineal.
4. Pound all together; let them simmer gently for twenty minutes, and strain through a bag: when cold, bottle it, adding to each bottle a wineglass of brandy. It will keep for seven years.

By the mid-1850s, the anchovies had been dropped.^[12]

James Mease published another recipe in 1812. In 1824, a ketchup recipe using tomatoes appeared in The Virginia Housewife (an influential 19th-century cookbook written by Mary Randolph, Thomas Jefferson’s cousin). American cooks also began to sweeten ketchup in the 19th century.^[13]

As the century progressed, tomato ketchup began its ascent in popularity in the United States. Ketchup was popular long before fresh tomatoes were. People were less hesitant to eat tomatoes as part of a highly processed product that had been cooked and infused with vinegar and spices.^[14]

Tomato ketchup was sold locally by farmers. Jonas Yerkes is credited as the first American to sell it in a bottle.^[15] By 1837, he had produced and distributed the condiment nationally.^[16] Shortly thereafter, other companies followed suit. F. & J. Heinz launched their tomato ketchup in 1876.^[17] Heinz Tomato Ketchup was advertised: «Blessed relief for Mother and the other women in the household!», a slogan which alluded to the lengthy process required to produce tomato ketchup in the home.^[18] With industrial ketchup production and a need for better preservation there was a great increase of sugar in ketchup, leading to the typically sweet and sour formula of today.^[12] In Australia, it was not until the late 19th century that sugar was added to tomato sauce, initially in small quantities, but today it contains just as much as American ketchup and only differed in the proportions of tomatoes, salt and vinegar in early recipes.^[19]

The Webster’s Dictionary of 1913 defined «catsup» as: «table sauce made from mushrooms, tomatoes, walnuts, etc. [Also written as ketchup].»

Modern ketchup emerged in the early years of the 20th century, out of a debate over the use of sodium benzoate as a preservative in condiments. Harvey W. Wiley, the «father» of the Food and Drug Administration in the US, challenged the safety of benzoate which was banned in the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act.
In response, entrepreneurs including Henry J. Heinz, pursued an alternative recipe that eliminated the need for that preservative.^{[citation needed]} Katherine Bitting, a bacteriologist working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, carried out research in 1909 that proved increasing the sugar and vinegar content of the product would prevent spoilage without use of artificial preservatives. She was assisted by her husband, Arvil Bitting, an official at that agency.^[20]

Prior to Heinz (and his fellow innovators), commercial tomato ketchups of that time were watery and thin, in part because they used unripe tomatoes, which were low in pectin.^[21] They had less vinegar than modern ketchups; by pickling ripe tomatoes, the need for benzoate was eliminated without spoilage or degradation in flavor. But the changes driven by the desire to eliminate benzoate also produced changes^{[clarification needed]} that some experts (such as Andrew F. Smith^[22]) believe were key to the establishment of tomato ketchup as the dominant American condiment.

Later innovations

In fast-food outlets, ketchup is often dispensed in small sachets or tubs. Diners tear the side or top and squeeze the ketchup out of the ketchup packets, or peel the foil lid off the tub for dipping. In 2011, Heinz began offering a new measured-portion package, called the «Dip and Squeeze» packet, which can be opened in either way, giving both options.^[23]

Some fast food outlets previously dispensed ketchup from hand-operated pumps into paper cups. This method has made a comeback in the first decades of the 21st century, as cost and environmental concerns over the increasing use of individual plastic ketchup tubs were taken into account.

In October 2000, Heinz introduced colored ketchup products called EZ Squirt, which eventually included green (2000), purple (2001), mystery (pink, orange, or teal, 2002), and blue (2003).^[24] These products were made by adding food coloring to the traditional ketchup. As of January 2006 these products were discontinued.^[25]

Terminology

The term used for the sauce varies. Ketchup is the dominant term in American English and Canadian English, although catsup is commonly used in some southern US states and Mexico.^[26]

In Canada and the US, tomato sauce is not a synonym for ketchup but is a sauce made from tomatoes and commonly used in making sauce for pasta.^[27]

Etymology

The etymology of the word ketchup is unclear and has multiple competing theories:^[28]

Amoy theory

A popular folk etymology is that the word came to English from the Cantonese «keh jup» (茄汁 ke2 zap1, literally meaning «tomato sauce» in Cantonese).^[29] The word «keh» (茄) means «eggplant»;»Tomato» in Cantonese is 番茄, which literally translates to «foreign eggplant».

Another theory among academics is that the word derives from one of two words from Hokkien of the Fujian region of coastal southern China: «kôe-chiap» (in Xiamen and Quanzhou) or «kê-chiap»^[30][31] (in Zhangzhou). Both of these words (膎汁, kôe-chiap and kêchiap) come from either the Quanzhou dialect, Amoy dialect, or Zhangzhou dialect of Hokkien, where it meant the brine of pickled fish (膎, meat; 汁, juice) or shellfish.^[32] There are citations of «koe-chiap» in the Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of the Amoy (London; Trudner) from 1873, defined as «brine of pickled fish or shell-fish».

Malay theory

Ketchup may have entered the English language from the Malay word kicap (pronounced [kitʃap], sometimes spelled kecap or ketjap). Originally meaning «soy sauce», the word itself derives from the Chinese terms.^[33]

In Indonesian cuisine, which is similar to Malay, the term kecap refers to fermented savory sauces. Two main types are well known in their cuisine: kecap asin which translates to ‘salty kecap’ in Indonesian (a salty soy sauce) and kecap manis or «sweet kecap» in Indonesian. Kecap manis is a sweet soy sauce that is a mixture of soy sauce with brown sugar, molasses, garlic, ginger, anise, coriander and a bay leaf reduced over medium heat until rather syrupy. A third type, kecap ikan, meaning «fish kecap» is fish sauce similar to the Thai nam pla or the Philippine patis. It is not, however, soy-based.

European-Arabic theory

American anthropologist E. N. Anderson relies on Elizabeth David to claim that ketchup is a cognate of the French escaveche, meaning «food in sauce».^[34] The word also exists in Spanish and Portuguese forms as escabeche, «a sauce for pickling», which culinary historian Karen Hess traced back to Arabic Kabees, or «pickling with vinegar». The term was anglicized to caveach, a word first attested in the late 17th century, at the same time as ketchup.^[28]

Early uses in English

The word entered the English language in Britain during the late 17th century, appearing in print as catchup (1690) and later as ketchup (1711). The following is a list of early quotations collected by the Oxford English Dictionary.

• 1690, B. E., A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew
  • Catchup: a high East-India Sauce.
• 1711, Charles Lockyer, An Account of the Trade in India 128
  • Soy comes in Tubbs from Japan, and the best Ketchup from Tonquin; yet good of both sorts are made and sold very cheap in China.
• 1727, Eliza Smith, The Compleat Housewife, or, Accomplish’d Gentlewoman’s Companion^[35]
  • The first published recipe: it included mushrooms, anchovies and horseradish.
• 1730, Jonathan Swift, A Panegyrick on the Dean Wks. 1755 IV. I. 142
  • And, for our home-bred British cheer, Botargo, catsup, and caveer.
• 1748, Sarah Harrison, The Housekeeper’s Pocket-Book and Compleat Family Cook. i. (ed. 4) 2,
  • I therefore advise you to lay in a Store of Spices, … neither ought you to be without … Kitchup, or Mushroom Juice.
• 1751, Mrs. Hannah Glasse, Cookery Bk. 309
  • It will taste like foreign Catchup.
• 1817, Lord Byron, Beppo viii,
  • Walk or ride to the Strand, and buy in gross … Ketchup, Soy, Chili-vinegar, and Harvey …
• 1832, Vegetable Substances Used for the Food of Man 333
  • One … application of mushrooms is … converting them into the sauce called Catsup.
• 1840, Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge (1849) 91/1
  • Some lamb chops (breaded, with plenty of ketchup).
• 1845, Eliza Acton, Modern Cookery v. (1850) 136 (L.)
  • Walnut catsup.
• 1862, Macmillan’s Magazine. Oct. 466
  • He found in mothery catsup a number of yellowish globular bodies.
• 1874, Mordecai C. Cooke, Fungi; Their Nature, Influence and Uses 89
  • One important use to which several … fungi can be applied, is the manufacture of ketchup.

Composition

U.S. Heinz tomato ketchup’s ingredients (listed from highest to lowest percentage weight) are: tomato concentrate from red ripe tomatoes, distilled vinegar, high-fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, salt, spice, onion powder, and natural flavoring.^[36]

«Fancy» ketchup

Some ketchup in the U.S. is labeled «Fancy». This is a USDA grade, relating to specific gravity. Fancy ketchup has a higher tomato solid concentration than other USDA grades.^[37]

USDA ketchup grades

Grade	Specific gravity	Total solids
Fancy	1.15	33%
Extra Standard	1.13	29%
Standard	1.11	25%

Nutrition

The following table compares the nutritional value of ketchup with raw ripe tomatoes and salsa, based on information from the USDA Food Nutrient Database.^[38]

Nutrient (per 100 g)	Ketchup	Low-sodium ketchup	Tomatoes, year-round	USDA commodity salsa
Energy	419 kJ 100 kcal	435 kJ 104 kcal	75 kJ 18 kcal	150 kJ 36 kcal
Water	68.33 g	66.58 g	94.50 g	89.70 g
Protein	1.74 g	1.52 g	0.88 g	1.50 g
Fats	0.49 g	0.36 g	0.20 g	0.20 g
Carbohydrates	25.78 g	27.28 g	3.92 g	7.00 g
Sodium	1110 mg	20 mg	5 mg	430 mg
Vitamin C	15.1 mg	15.1 mg	12.7 mg	4 mg
Lycopene	17.0 mg	19.0 mg	2.6 mg	n/a

Viscosity

Commercial tomato ketchup has an additive, usually xanthan gum, which gives the condiment a pseudoplastic or «shear thinning» property – more commonly known as thixotropic.^{[citation needed]} This increases the viscosity of the ketchup considerably with a relatively small amount added—usually 0.5%—which can make it difficult to pour from a container. However, the shear thinning property of the gum ensures that when a force is applied to the ketchup it will lower the viscosity enabling the sauce to flow. A common method to getting ketchup out of the bottle involves inverting the bottle and shaking it or hitting the bottom with the heel of the hand, which causes the ketchup to flow rapidly. Ketchup in plastic bottles can be additionally manipulated by squeezing the bottle, which also decreases the viscosity of the ketchup inside. Another technique involves inverting the bottle and forcefully tapping its upper neck with two fingers (index and middle finger together). Specifically, with a Heinz ketchup glass bottle, one taps the 57 circle on the neck. This helps the ketchup flow by applying the correct shearing force.^[39] These techniques work because of how pseudoplastic fluids behave: their viscosity (resistance to flow) decreases with increasing shear rate. The faster the ketchup is sheared (by shaking or tapping the bottle), the more fluid it becomes. After the shear is removed the ketchup thickens to its original viscosity.

Ketchup is a non-Newtonian fluid, meaning that its viscosity changes under stress and is not constant. It is a shear thinning fluid which means its viscosity decreases with increased shear stress.^[40] The equation used to designate a non-Newtonian fluid is as follows: . This equation represents apparent viscosity where apparent viscosity is the shear stress divided by shear rate. Viscosity is dependent on stress. This is apparent when you shake a bottle of tomato sauce/ketchup so it becomes liquid enough to squirt out. Its viscosity decreased with stress.^[41]

The molecular composition of ketchup is what creates its pseudoplastic characteristics. Small polysaccharides, sugars, acids, and water make up the majority of the metastable ketchup product, and these small structures are able to move more easily throughout a matrix because of their low mass. While exposed to shear stress, the molecules within the suspension are able to respond quickly and create an alignment within the product.^[42] The bonds between the molecules are mostly hydrogen bonds, ionic interactions, and electrostatic interactions, all of which can be broken when subject to stress. Hydrogen bonds are constantly rearranging within a product due to their need to be in the lowest energy state, which further confirms that the bonds between the molecules will be easily disrupted. This alignment only lasts for as long as shear stress is applied. The molecules return to their original disorganized state once the shear stress dissipates.^[42]

In 2017, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported the development of a bottle coating that allowed all the product to slip out without leaving a residue.^[43]

In 2022, researchers at the University of Oxford found that splatter from a near-empty bottle can be prevented by squeezing more slowly and doubling the diameter of the nozzle.^[44]

Separation

Ketchup is one of the many products that are leachable, meaning that the water within the product migrates together as the larger molecules within the product sediment, ultimately causing water to separate out. This forms a layer of water on top of the ketchup due to the molecular instability within the product.^[45] This instability is caused by interactions between hydrophobic molecules and charged molecules within the ketchup suspension.

Pectin is a polysaccharide within tomatoes that has the ability to bind to itself and to other molecules, especially water, around it. This enables it to create a gel-like matrix, dependent on the amount within the solution. Water is a large part of ketchup, due to it being 80% of the composition of distilled vinegar. In order for the water within the ketchup to be at the lowest possible energy state, all of the hydrogen bonds that are able to be made within the matrix must be made.^[46] The water bound to the polysaccharide moves more slowly within the matrix, which is unfavorable with respect to entropy.^[45] The increased order within the polysaccharide-water complex gives rise to a high-energy state, in which the water will want to be relieved. This concept implies that water will more favorably bind with itself because of the increased disorder between water molecules. This is partially the cause for water leaching out of solution when left undisturbed for a short period of time.

See also

References

Further reading

External links

• Quotations related to Ketchup at Wikiquote

English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

• catsup
• catchup (obsolete)
• katjap, katsup, kechap (archaic)
• ketsup (dated)

Etymology[edit]

Uncertain, but probably ultimately from Chinese via Malay kicap, from Hokkien 膎汁 (kê-chiap, “fish broth”), though precise path is unclear – there are related words in various Chinese dialects, and it may have entered English directly from Chinese. Cognate to Indonesian kecap, ketjap (“soy sauce”). Various other theories exist – see Ketchup: Etymology for extended discussion.

First appeared in English in the late 17th century in reference to a Southeast Asian sauce encountered by British traders and sailors. The Oxford English Dictionary notes that it was commonly used in the 18th century to refer to a variety of similar sauces with varying ingredients—»anchovies, mushrooms, walnuts, and oysters being particularly popular»—but by the late 19th century the current tomato ketchup became the most popular form.^[1]

Catsup (earlier catchup) is an alternative Anglicization, still in use in the U.S.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɛt͡ʃ.əp/, /ˈkɛt͡ʃ.ʌp/
• Homophone: catch-up (one pronunciation)

Noun[edit]

ketchup (countable and uncountable, plural ketchups)

1. (uncountable, chiefly US, Canada, UK) Ellipsis of tomato ketchup.. A tomato-vinegar-based sauce, sometimes containing spices, onion or garlic, and (especially in the US) sweeteners.

   Synonym: tomato catsup

   Hypernyms: tomato sauce, red ketchup, red catsup

   tomato ketchup

   This diner serves ketchup in red bottles, and mustard in yellow ones.

2. (countable, now rare) Such a sauce more generally (not necessarily based on tomatoes, but with mushrooms, fish, etc.). This is the older meaning.

   Hyponyms: tomato ketchup, tomato catsup, fruit ketchup, fruit catsup, corn ketchup, corn catsup, green ketchup, green catsup, yellow ketchup, yellow catsup

   • 1883, Cassell’s Dictionary of Cookery, page lxxxiii:

     The bottles, however, were port bottles, but contained mushroom ketchup; […]

   • 2003, Inns and Bed and Breakfasts in Quebec 2003, Ulysses Travel Guides, page 46:

     To accompany meat, we prepare fruit ketchups and rhubarb chutney.

Usage notes[edit]

The spelling ketchup became significantly preferred in the United States due to the popularity of the Heinz brand, which shortly after its introduction in 1876 switched from catsup to this spelling to distinguish itself from competitors. Other major brands, such as Hunt, subsequently followed, with Del Monte only switching to ketchup in 1988.^[2]

This condiment is more commonly and somewhat ambiguously called tomato sauce outside of North America and the United Kingdom. In South Africa, the word ketchup is not generally understood.

Hypernyms[edit]

Coordinate terms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

ketchup (third-person singular simple present ketchups, present participle ketchupping, simple past and past participle ketchupped)

1. (transitive) To cover with ketchup.

   • 1867, John Maddison Morton, Aunt Charlotte’s maid: a farce in one act:

     It strikes me she’s «ketchupped» the lot! I won’t touch a morsel!

   • 1973, Horizon, page 15:

     «Well,» said Chuck, ketchupping his hamburger, «I’d rather do without King Lear than put up with the human agony it sprang out of. I’d rather not have the Eroica than have the big bloody conqueror it tries to immortalize.»

   • 2009, David Silverman, Twinkle, page 4:

     Their fellow diners, like their ketchupped grub, were appropriately dashed and splattered with paint and plaster, reading their Suns and Daily Mirror.

References[edit]

• Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “ketchup”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Danish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English ketchup. Ultimately from Chinese. See English etymology.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): [ˈkʰɛd̥ɕub̥]

Noun[edit]

ketchup c (singular definite ketchuppen, plural indefinite ketchupper)

1. (uncountable) ketchup (a tomate sauce with vinegar)
2. (countable) ketchup (a particular brand or type of ketchup)

Declension[edit]

Dutch[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English ketchup. Ultimately from Chinese. See English etymology.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

ketchup m (plural ketchups, diminutive ketchupje n)

1. ketchup

Synonyms[edit]

• tomatenketchup

Derived terms[edit]

• curryketchup
• tomatenketchup

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English ketchup. Ultimately from Chinese. See English etymology.

Pronunciation[edit]

• (France) IPA^(key): /kɛt.ʃœp/
• (France, Quebec) IPA^(key): /kɛt.ʃɔp/

Noun[edit]

ketchup m (plural ketchups)

1. ketchup

Further reading[edit]

• “ketchup”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Polish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɛ.t͡ʂup/, (rare) /ˈkɛ.t͡ʂap/
• Rhymes: -ɛt͡ʂup
• Syllabification: ke‧tchup

Noun[edit]

ketchup m inan

1. Alternative spelling of keczup

Declension[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• ketchup in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• ketchup in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

• catchup

Etymology[edit]

Unadapted borrowing from English ketchup.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

ketchup m (plural ketchups)

1. (uncountable) ketchup (tomato-vinegar based sauce)

Quotations[edit]

For quotations using this term, see Citations:ketchup.

References[edit]

“ketchup” in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa.

Romanian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Unadapted borrowing from English ketchup.

Noun[edit]

ketchup n (uncountable)

1. ketchup

Declension[edit]

Serbo-Croatian[edit]

Noun[edit]

ketchup m (Cyrillic spelling кетцхуп)

1. Alternative form of kečap

Spanish[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

• kétchup

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from English ketchup. Ultimately from Chinese. See English etymology.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /keˈt͡ʃup/ [keˈt͡ʃup]
• Rhymes: -up

Noun[edit]

ketchup m (plural ketchups)

1. ketchup

Swedish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English ketchup.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɛtːɕɵp/

Noun[edit]

ketchup c

1. ketchup

Declension[edit]

Declension of ketchup
	Uncountable
Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	ketchup	ketchupen	—	—
Genitive	ketchups	ketchupens	—	—

See also[edit]

• spaghetti
• makaroner
• köttfärssås

References[edit]

• ketchup in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• ketchup in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)

West Frisian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From English ketchup.

Noun[edit]

ketchup c (no plural)

1. ketchup

Ketchup, OED, 1711

The OED says:

Etymology: apparently < Chinese (Amoy dialect) kôechiap or kê-tsiap brine of pickled fish or shell-fish (Douglas Chinese Dict. 46/1, 242/1). Malay kēchap (in Dutch spelling ketjap), which has been claimed as the original source (Scott Malayan Wds. in English 64–67), may be from Chinese.

The Japanese kitjap, alleged in some recent dicts., is an impossible form for that language. (? error for Javanese.)

Their earliest quotation is 18th century:

1711 C. Lockyer Acct. Trade India 128 Soy comes in Tubbs from Jappan, and the best Ketchup from Tonquin; yet good of both sorts are made and sold very cheap in China.

But they have an earlier quotation for catchup:

1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew, Catchup, a high East-India Sauce.

Ketchup, 1701

I found a 10-year antedating in The mysteries of opium reveal’d by John Jones (1701) which uses it twice. First on page 350:

III The Vehicle in Vomiting should be small in Quantity, pleasant, comfortable, and warming, lest you should by either Quantity or Quality give any offence to the Stomach; pleasing it answers the same Intent with the Opiate it self, and has often good Effect without Opium ; for, indeed, every Pleaser is proportionably an Opiate, and Opium is only such in an intense and permanent manner; therefore the Vehicle must be agreeable, as Wine, Hippocras or Wine burnt with Spices, Rosemary, &c or the best Cordials, or Wine with some Ketchup, Caviare, or Anchovis, or a little old Cheese dissolved in it upon the Fire, according as the Person likes one or the other; which last (tho’ not used in common Practice) are of very great Benefit, where they are pleasing and well liked of.

And page 358:

As to Diet, it must be Nourishing, Warming, Comforting, and Titillating, with realishing and high Sauces, Oisters, Anchovy, Caviare, Cockles, Ketchup, Mango’s, Garlick, Onions, Leeks, Bear Garlick, Rocket, Sives, Shelot, Ginger, Aromaticks, Roots of Satyrion, Feaverfew, Goats-beard, Silver-weed, Skirrets, Parsnips, and Artichoaks.

Ketchup, 1708

A later antedating gives a hint of the content, in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (1708 — Volume 25 — Page 2268):

Soia, of which Ketchup is made, is the Seed of: Indian Phaseolus; …

Summer is cookout season, and chances are that whatever’s on the menu, there will be ketchup on the table.

97 percent of Americans have a bottle in their fridges, and it’s one of the top-selling condiments of the last hundred years. Just about everyone enjoys its combination of sweet, sour, and savory flavors on something, and it’s as familiar as food can be. But where did the word ketchup come from?

Fermenting fish into sauces goes back millenia in Asia, with records showing the practice well-established in China and Southeast Asia 2300 years ago. Countries all over East and Southeast Asia still use fermented fish and shrimp sauces as an essential basis for their cuisines; the amino acids that result from fermentation have tons of umami, the «fifth taste,» which imparts a meaty deliciousness to food and enhances other flavors.

Hokkien is a language spoken in southeastern China’s Fujian province, as well as in Taiwan and in Chinese diaspora communities throughout Asia. In the Amoy dialect of Hokkien, also known as Xiamen after the biggest city in the area, 17th-century records show a sauce made from fermented fish and spices called kôe-chiap or kê-chiap. A reference to «Catchup, a high East-India sauce» appears in a popular dictionary of British slang from 1690.

The condiment proved popular, and within a few decades it had travelled to Malaysia. The Malay version of the name was kicap or kecap, pronounced «ket-chap.» Indonesian cuisine today still uses a sweetened soy-based sauce called kecap manis. British colonists enjoyed kecap and brought it home, carrying it on to America as well. Spellings varied, though the current ketchup appears fairly early along with several variants, one of which, catsup, is still used in parts of the American South and in Mexico.

Early western versions of the condiment in both Britain and America were made from a wide variety of base foods, ranging from mushrooms to walnuts to oysters cooked down with salt , spices and anchovies. By the early nineteenth century, a tomato-based version had emerged, and by the middle of the century it was quite popular in the U.S. Tomatoes contain significant amounts of glutamic acid, one of those umami-rich compounds present in the original fish sauces, and they spoil quickly if they’re not preserved, so they made a logical choice.

In Britain, the word ketchup is used, but it’s also often called tomato sauce, which sounds confusing if you’re a fan of Italian food; in North America tomato sauce goes on pasta and pizza, not French fries. Many parts of the U.K. refer to ketchup as red sauce in order to distinguish it from brown sauces like HP and A1 — which are also westernized versions of Asian condiments, but that’s another story. In 1876, Henry Heinz developed his recipe for the ketchup we all know, and that spelling mostly became standard, though an American dictionary entry from 1913 still uses the catchup spelling.

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We’re running down the origins of some summer-related words. Here are a few more:

Meat Your Maker: The Origins of «Barbecue»

Blanket Statement: The Origins of «Picnic»