The word ‘ketchup’ conjures up an image of the thick, sweet, tomato-based condiment that American teenagers deploy indiscriminately on most of their foods.
Tomato ketchup is similar to tomato sauce except that it is thick in consistency. The amount of spices added in tomato ketchup is considerably higher than in tomato sauce.
Tomato ketchup may have originated in America. It was widely used throughout the United States in the early nineteenth century and small quantities of it were first bottled in the 1850s.
Tomato ketchup was more versatile and performed a variety of culinary functions. It was used for coloring, and flavoring in many prepared dishes; it was employed in soups, gravies, sauce and salad dressing and as condiment on steak, chop, roasts, cutlets, fish, oysters, eggs and many other foods.
The consumption of ketchup has expanded along with proliferation of fast food restaurant, where it is dispensed in single serving pouches or in large plastic reservoirs with push pumps.
What is ketchup?
