What are some facts about the man who invented ketchup?

Question

More about the man Heinz who invented ketchup

Answer 1

First of all, Henry J. Heinz was not the inventor of ketchup:

Ketchup existed before anyone outside the Americas had ever seen a tomato. Originally this sauce was made out of pickled fish. It originated in Eastern Asia; the word ketchup is used in Chinese, Malay and Indonesian (e.g., kecap manis). English and Dutch sailors brought the Asian ketchup to Europe, where many flavourings, such as mushrooms, anchovies and nuts, were added to the basic fish sauce. Whether the tomato was also added to ketchup in England is not certain, and it's likely that this important event first happened in the USA.

A man named Jonas Yerks (or Yerkes) is believed to be the first man to have made tomato ketchup a national phenomenon. By 1837 he had produced and distributed the condiment nationally. Shortly, other companies followed suit. F. & J. Heinz launched their tomato ketchup in 1876.

In 1869, Heinz founded Heinz Noble & Company with a friend, L. C. Noble, and began marketing horseradish. The company went bankrupt in 1875, but the following year Heinz founded another company, F & J Heinz, with his brother and a cousin. One of this company's first products was tomato ketchup.

The company continued to grow, and in 1888 Heinz bought out his other two partners and reorganized the company as the H J Heinz Company, the name it carries to the present day. Its famous slogan, "57 varieties," was introduced by Heinz in 1896.


For more info, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_J._Heinz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketchup

Answer 2

Mags and Borscht give pretty comprehensive answers, but neither mentions Heinz's giant electric pickle. And since this is the Trivia category...

Heinz ordered the construction of a six-story, twelve-hundred-light display featuring a forty-foot pickle; installed at the intersection of 5th Avenue and 23rd Street in New York City, this electric marvel dazzled New York residents and tourists until 1906.

Answer 3

Henry John Heinz (October 11, 1844–May 14, 1919) was a United States businessman.

Heinz was one of eight children born to John Henry and Anna Schmidt Heinz. Both parents had imigrated from Germany and settled in the Birmingham section of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—today known as the South Side.

When Henry was five the family moved several miles up the Allegheny River to the little town of Sharpsburg. There, at age six, young Henry (Called Harry by his family) started helping his mother tend a small backyard garden behind the family home. At age eight Henry was canvassing the neighborhood with a basket under each arm selling vegetables from the family garden door to door.

By age nine he was growing, grinding, bottling and selling his own brand of horseradish sauce. At ten he was given a ¾ acre (3,000 m²) garden of his own and had graduated to a wheelbarrow to deliver his vegetables. At twelve he was working 3½ acres (14,000 m²) of garden using a horse and cart for his three-times-a-week deliveries to grocery stores in Pittsburgh. At seventeen he was grossing $2,400 a year—a handsome sum for the times.

Heinz attended a business college and after graduating started employment with his father's brick-manufacturing business, eventually becoming a partner in the firm. All the while he continued growing and selling fresh produce.

In 1869, Heinz founded Heinz Noble & Company with a friend, L. C. Noble, and began marketing horseradish. The company went bankrupt in 1875, but the following year Heinz founded another company, F & J Heinz, with his brother and a cousin. One of this company's first products was tomato ketchup.

The company continued to grow, and in 1888 Heinz bought out his other two partners and reorganized the company as the H J Heinz Company, the name it carries to the present day. Its famous slogan, "57 varieties," was introduced by Heinz in 1896. Inspired by an advertisement he saw while riding an elevated train in New York City (a shoe store boasting of "21 styles"), Heinz picked the number more or less at random because he liked the sound of it, selecting 7 specifically because, as he put it, of the "psychological influence of that figure and of its alluring significance to people of all ages." (The company marketed far more than 57 varieties of product even at that point.)

H J Heinz was incorporated in 1905, and Heinz served as its first president, remaining in the position for the rest of his life. Under his tutelage, the company was noted for fair treatment of workers and for pioneering safe and sanitary food preparation. Heinz led a successful lobbying effort in favor of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906. He also was very involved working in his church's Sunday school and participated in various philanthropic endeavors, notably the Sarah Heinz settlement house in Pittsburgh, which he founded in 1894 and named after his wife.

At the time of his death in Pittsburgh at the age of 74, the company had over twenty food processing plants, and also included seed farms and container factories. Heinz was the grandfather of H. J. Heinz II and great-grandfather of United States Senator John Heinz.

Answer 4

look on the back of a ketchup bottle.

Answer 5

He used Tomatoes and his name!LOL

Answer 6

he probably smelled like tomatoes and vinegar

Answer 7

noone knows much more about him than that he was always complaining about how his hamburger needed more flavor...

Answer 8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_J._Heinz