Perfect Condiment
Ok. Now I’m hungry. And I just had lunch!!! :)))))
There are certain things that just go together. Cookies and cream. Peanut butter and jelly. Chips and dip. And for me, one of those things is French fries and ketchup. Now, I know some of you out there would insist on eating them plain, or for my northern friends, splashing a little vinegar on them too, but for me, French fries and ketchup just go together. Take a minute – close your eyes and think about McDonalds French fries, and one of those little ketchup packets – you leave the drive thru, open the bag, the aroma hits you and your find the fries, tear the corner of the tiny ketchup packet, squirt the yummy ketchup into the top of the fry holder, pick a few and … bam! Now that’s good! I have always loved ketchup – in my humble opinion it is the perfect condiment! As I finished my burger and fries for lunch the other day, it got me to thinking about ketchup – history, production, recipes, and more. For my foodies out there, here’s some fun info about ketchup (catsup?). Thanks to google, businessinsider.com, Wikipedia and allrecipes.com for the info, and YouTube for the video, and Mickey D’s for those yummy fries! Enjoy!
What 1.8 Million bottles a day looks like
(the video above tests my plant logistics brain – tons of tomatoes/sauce, gallons of water, 1.8 million bottles, caps, 5 million labels, boxes, palettes, shrink wrap – wow – talk about a PIA (Pain in the @%$) Job! – and that’s DAILY!!!). WOW.
- The word “ketchup” comes from the Hokkien Chinese word, “kê-tsiap”, which is a sauce that calls for fermented fish; a far cry from the ketchup we know today. Ketchup has come a long way from its roots in China as far back as the third century BCE, when cooks fermented seafood to create a salty, amber-colored sauce that resembles modern fish sauce (an anchovy-based condiment that adds umami flavor to many Asian dishes). Absolutely not a fan of fish sauce.
- The ketchup we slather onto hot dogs, burgers, and fries today once had a different purpose: Doctors believed it was best consumed as a health tonic. I am always telling Jackie that it’s heart healthy!
- By around the 16th century, British sailors had taken word of ketchup back to their home country, and British cooks tried to replicate it with their own versions made from walnuts and mushrooms.
- The word “catsup” first showed up in poems composed at Market Hill by Jonathan Swift in 1730 when he wrote about “Botargo, catsup, and caviare.” For a while the word “catsup” was more commonly used in North America, and then “ketchup” took over due to large-scale manufacturers like Heinz and Hunt’s calling is ketchup.
- It’s not clear exactly when tomatoes came on the scene, though the first known tomato ketchup recipe appeared around 1812, published by Philadelphia horticulturist James Mease.
- It wasn’t until the 1830s that some doctors began rebranding tomatoes as a 19th-century superfood. One physician, Dr. John Cook Bennett, especially promoted tomatoes as cures for indigestion and other stomach ailments, encouraging a craze for the fruit that eventually saw the introduction of ketchup pills and extracts (one memorable jingle went, “tomato pills will cure all your ills”).
- The fad would last through around the 1850s, but soon enough home cooks focused on creating their own ketchups instead of taking the vitamin equivalents. The sauce then became an easily obtainable American dinner table staple in large part thanks to the H. J. Heinz Company, which released its first tomato ketchup in 1876.
- HJ Heinz was the son of immigrant parents. When Heinz turned six, he began helping his mother with her garden (1850). By age eight, Henry began selling goods to neighbors out of a basket he would carry around (1852). When he was nine, Henry was grinding and making his own horseradish sauce — it was his mother’s recipe (1853)
- Demand was so strong Heinz began to use a horse and cart to deliver his goods by age 12 (1856). At 16, Heinz began making three weekly deliveries to Pittsburgh, Penn (1860). By the time he was 25, Heinz had formed his first company with a friend. It was named Heinz Noble & Company (1869) and they sold canned beans.
- In just a few years they went bankrupt and shut down. Heinz quickly formed a new business with his cousin, the F & J Heinz Co. (1875). In 1876 they began selling ketchup and the company
- In 1888, Henry bought out his family members and launched a major factory along the Allegheny.
- In 1896 Heinz added the 57 to the bottle, after seeing a shoe store advertise 21 styles of shoes. Although he was selling more than 60 products at the time, Heinz thought 57 was lucky.
TRIVIA:
- Number of individual ketchup packets made by Heinz each year (as of 2020) – 12 billion
- Approximate number of known tomato species – 10,000
- Year the ketchup packet was patented – 1955
- Weight (in tons) of tomatoes processed into ketchup each year by Heinz – 2 million
- Top five brands – Heinz, Hunts, Del Monte, French’s, Primal Kitchen
- The World’s Largest Catsup Bottle® stands proudly next to Route 159, just south of downtown Collinsville, Illinois – formerly a water tower: https://www.catsupbottle.com
If you want to make your own, here you go: CLICK
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DO YOU LIKE CONTESTS?
Me, too.
As you may know the Kowalski Heat Treating logo finds its way
into the visuals of my Friday posts.
I. Love. My. Logo.
One week there could be three logos.
The next week there could be 15 logos.
And sometimes the logo is very small or just a partial logo showing.
But there are always logos in some of the pictures.
So, I challenge you, my beloved readers, to count them and send me a
quick email with the total number of logos in the Friday post.
On the following Tuesday I’ll pick a winner from the correct answers
and send that lucky person some great KHT swag.
So, start counting and good luck!
Oh, and the logos at the very top header don’t count.
Got it? Good. :-))))
Have fun!!
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