Which Are You?

I'm okay with Catsup or Ketchup, but I usually correct anyone who uses either of them, to insist that it should be the other. Contrariness, I suppose. Dipping is a must, though. Otherwise, my fingers are all full of catsup and I don't like that.

 

Today, we may have several brands of catsup and at least two ways of spelling it (catsup or ketchup), but in the 19th century, there were several varieties of ketchup, including walnut, oyster, mushroom, lemon, anchovy, and tomato.

The Domestic Cookery Book, prepared by Eliza Leslie and published in 1837, included ketchup that was made from mashed lobster with cayenne and sherry. Others included a base made from the juices of fruit, shellfish, or vegetables, which was complemented with spices or spirits.

In the 17th century, English sailors brought from Malay a sauce called kechap, made from pickled fish brine. But it wasn't until the 19th century that people in North America ate tomato ketchup. For one thing, people considered the plant to be poisonous. Thomas Jefferson wrote about his difficulty in persuading people that tomatoes wouldn't kill them.

Once it caught on, it caught on big, and Henry J. Heinz was selling tomato ketchup in corked bottles with long necks by 1876, the bottles designed to deter discoloration.

What do you think? Are you ready to eat your fries with lobster ketchup?

 

I am one of those people who only eats a hamburger and French fries as a way to get the ketchup into my mouth. (Bobby will verify this as true).
I raised all my kids the same way.
We need a whole bottle of ketchup anytime we go out to a restaurant together, and then we argue who gets to have the ketchup bottle closest to them while we are eating.
(I am the Mom, so guess where the ketchup stays……)