How old is Ketchup? How long has it been around?

Answer 1

Ketchup history
The word ketchup is derived from the Chinese ke-tsiap, a pickled fish sauce. It made its way to Malaysia where it became kechap and ketjap in Indonesia. Seventeenth century English sailors first discovered the delights of this Chinese condiment and brought it west. Ketchup was first mentioned in print around 1690. The Chinese version is actually more akin to a soy or Worcestershire sauce. It gradually went through various changes, particularly with the addition of tomatoes in the 1700s, and by the nineteenth century, ketchup was also known as tomato soy. Early tomato versions were much thinner and more like a soy or Worcestershire sauce. F. & J. Heinz Company began selling tomato ketchup in 1876. By the end of the nineteenth century, tomato ketchup was the primary type of ketchup, and the decriptor of tomato was gradually dropped. Catsup and catchup are acceptable spellings used interchangably with ketchup, but ketchup is the way you will find it listed in the majority of cookbooks.

The word ketchup exemplifies the types of modifications that can take place in borrowing—both of words and substances. The source of our word ketchup may be the Malay word kēchap, possibly taken into Malay from the Cantonese dialect of Chinese. Kēchap, like ketchup, was a sauce, but one without tomatoes; rather, it contained fish brine, herbs, and spices. Sailors seem to have brought the sauce to Europe, where it was made with locally available ingredients such as the juice of mushrooms or walnuts. At some unknown point, when the juice of tomatoes was first used, ketchup as we know it was born. But it is important to realize that in the 18th and 19th centuries ketchup was a generic term for sauces whose only common ingredient was vinegar. The word is first recorded in English in 1690 in the form catchup, in 1711 in the form ketchup, and in 1730 in the form catsup. All three spelling variants of this foreign borrowing remain current.

spicy pickled-fish condiment popular in 17th-century China-is said to be the origin of the name "ketchup." British seamen brought the ke-tsiap home and throughout the years the formula was changed to contain anything from nuts to mushrooms. It wasn't until the late 1700s that canny New Englanders added tomatoes to the blend and it became what we know today as ketchup. Also called catsup and catchup, this thick, spicy sauce is a traditional American accompaniment for French-fried potatoes, hamburgers and many other foods. Ketchup usually has a tomato foundation, though gourmet markets often carry condiments with similar appellations that might have a base of anything from walnuts to mangoes to mushrooms. Vinegar gives ketchup its tang, while sugar, salt and spices contribute to the blend. In addition to being used as a condiment, ketchup is used as an ingredient in many dishes.

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.

**It's a lot of information, and some of it may be repeated, i hope I helped!

Answer 2

How Old Is Ketchup

Answer 3

In 1801 the first recipe for Ketchup was recorded