The original condiment called ke-tchup was a fermented fish sauce from China. It became popular among sailors for spicing up bland food on long ocean voyages, and folks in other parts of the world then tried to duplicate it for themselves. The recipes varied widely until any fermented and/or vinegary sauce was called ketchup.
But ketchup became truly American once it was wed with the tomato and bottled industrially. While an early ketchup recipe with tomatoes appeared in Britain in 1817, calling for “a gallon of fine, red, and full ripe tomatas [sic],” and also anchovies, shallots, salt, and a variety of spices, it was Americans who really invented tomato ketchup.
The American tomato, with its origins in what is now Mexico and South America, was introduced to Europeans and North Americans by the Spanish conquistadors, and by the 19th century had become a ubiquitous garden plant. (Earlier it had been considered unhealthy and even poisonous.) Tomatoes became the base of many a sauce or stew, and before long were bottled as concentrated, fermented ketchups, preserved with vinegar and spices much the same way housewives would make a mushroom ketchup.
Tomato ketchup was a sensation, but recipes still varied until a company called Heinz started tweaking the recipe to balance shelf life and taste. That's when the story really takes off, and the success of Heinz ketchup led to other milestones in American agribusiness and cuisine. Read the story of ketchup at Smithsonian.
(Image credit: Visitor7)
Comments (2)
Yes, of course. Just like Matthew McConaughey & U571 captured Germany's Enigma coding machine, thus winning WWII.
Gunpowder loader for a cannon?
a tiny bell mount,
the link between the bell and the rope.
Good guesses - but so far, nothing that sounds like the real answer! Come on - a free shirt awaits.
These were some type of plastic container about 3/8"thick and 2"X2" square, colored bright Red with a DANGER warning printed in White letters and had a Lead strip about 6" long X 3/16"thick and 3/8" wide adheared to the bottom.
They were then filled with explosive powder and sealed tight.
When the Section Car, or work car, was a predetermined distance from their assigned work spot they would stop and one of the "Gandy Dancers" would dismount and place 1 Torpedo upon the top of the rail by squeezing that Lead strap around the rail. They would then proceed on to thier work area. When a train came along and hit that Torpedo it naturally exploded with a "report" that could be heard by the engineer over the noises of that monstorous steam locomotive and by the work crew..
This report was as loud as a quarter stick of Dynomite and there were instances of kids being killed when they struck one with a stone or a hammer!
When the "report" was heard everybody started doing what they needed to do to clear the track and the engineer slowed the train down to a safe speed..
As a kid, 1940 thru 45 we used to walk the L&N tracks in Wildie Ky and pick up those lead strips for the WW2 scrap metal drives. We would flatten it out and then roll it up like tape or cut it into smaller pieces to wrap around our fishing line as a sinker.
The Torpedos were also used by the Brakeman riding in the caboose on a fraight train or a Conductor on a passenger train, to warn a follownig train to be on lookout for a train being stopped to take on water at one of those big trackside tanks..
They would place between 1 and 3 torps on the track. There would be a space between each Torp and that distance told the engeneer something about the train out in front of him..It would be like "bang"--------
"bang"--"bang" ...Or "bang""bang"------------"bang".
It's amasing how that photo and caption brought out all those memories from so many years ago!!