Guide Note

Ketchup is a condiment made from tomatoes and blended with other ingredients like vinegar, salt, corn syrup, sugar, herbs and spices. Ketchup is a popular choice to be added to many foods such as hamburgers, hotdogs and french fries. Ketchup can be bought at the store or homemade.

H. J. Heinz Company began selling Ketchup in 1876. The recipe for his Ketchup remains the same today as it was all those years ago.

Fast Facts

1. Sometimes spelled catsup
2. One tablespoon has 16 calories and no fat
3. 4 tablespoons have the nutritional value of a medium ripe tomato
4. Ketchup works well for restoring the shine to tarnished copper.
5. Found in 97% of U.S. kitchens
6. Ketchup originally contained pickled fish
7. Often the main ingredient of Barbecue Sauce

Del Monte's jingle "Even Cats like our Catsup!" drew a lawsuit from one customer who overfed it to her cat causing it to have stomach problems and hair with an unnatural red-orange glow. It ended after weeks of litigation with a million-dollar settlement and two years of free hair dying for the cat.

Heinz, trying to play up their spelling and new plastic bottle, was ridiculed by English teachers everywhere for their promotion "You don't need to 'ketch' it when it drops!" forcing Heinz to make huge donations to the "Erase Illiteracy in America" program. — Culinary Slueth