A History of Ketchup

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My aunt who grew up in Malaysia in the 1940s used to always call soy sauce "ketchup". It used to drive me crazy. Forty years later, Max teaches me why she was right.

Also one thing people tend to ignore in modern times… Heinz still calls their product “Tomato Ketchup” acknowledging that it is not just Ketchup, but a specific variety of ketchup.

Hello, Max! I’m a Filipina, and we have a banana ketchup here, a sweeter kind made of bananas from World War II’s shortage of tomatoes. The recipe is credited to Maria Orosa, a war heroine, and I think you’d really like her. She basically took her food chemist degree and helped so many Filipinos and POWs survive the war through food. 😌 I know it’s a long shot that you’ll see this message but it would really mean the world to me if you could make an episode about her 💜 She has over 700 recipes made in her lifetime but she’s most famous for the banana ketchup, Soyalac (nutritious drink made from soyabeans) and Darak (rice cookies that she helped smuggle into Japanese-run internment camps). ☺️

My grandmother made mushroom ketchup. The recipe required a copious amount of mushrooms and I remember as a young boy scouring the countryside with her for wild mushrooms.

The line from fish sauce to soy sauce actually makes sense when you know of soy sauce's origins: It was created by Buddhist monks in China who were trying to find a vegetarian alternative to fish sauce.

I hope this is the start to a series about condiments. I'd love to see you deep dive into the history of mustard, mayo, Tabasco, and more.

In the Philippines, we have our own ketchup made from Banana. This type of ketchup was invented during WWII and still popular here up to these days. If you're interested in it or wanted to taste it, from what I know, Banana Ketchup is so easy to make.

So interesting! My great-grandmother used to make a family recipe that they called Ketchup, which is actually fermented cabbage, cauliflower, green tomatoes, and (possibly) onions. It was a family favorite that hadn't been made in a very long time until I tried my hand at it a few years ago. It is delicious!

I was hoping for a mushroom ketchup cameo, and I was not disappointed.

We Indonesians do always find it funny how “Kecap” gets you a soy sauce in our language and tomato sauce in English. Didn’t knew we were actually the originator of the term! The funniest thing is that our kecap now doesn’t even include fermented fish anymore. We call that one petis.

Ok, I'm fully convinced that England's quest for ketchup is where HP and other brown sauce came from. That endless list of ingredients they were trying in ketchup just makes me think of HP so powerfully.

Such an interesting episode. I visited Indonesia and asked for ketchup at a restaurant there and they gave us thick, sweet soy sauce, insisting that it was ketchup. Later I saw in the shops that it’s also called ketchup. This whole interaction makes much more sense now.

I love it how for Emperor's question "What's the stink?" answer is a full detailed recipe... 😂🤤

"THAT'S NOT SWEET." Thanks for my serotonin for the day, Max.

My wife is from the philippines and banana ketchup is very popular there. Its sweet and tangy, defiantly took some getting used to after having tomato ketchup my entire life.

I mean, I grew up with my mom calling it tomato ketchup, which always indicated to me there were other, non-tomato ketchups out there. So I'm not surprised.

When I was on a ship in the Navy, we ran out of ketchup - one of the only things that made the food edible - and we had to pick up banana katchup in port. It was okay, very vinegary!

This definitely sounds like something an enterprising upstart restaurant might want to use as a base for a 'signature house sauce' where guests would be wondering what the flavor is all about.

My 32yr old daughter was watching your show. While i was over at her home visiting her after the new baby. And she has always been quick to educate me. Which makes me giggle inside. But Not because I don't appreciate the education. But just very much appreciating the teaching. She enjoys reading and learning who,what, where and why. And now i have added you to my subscribed list sir. Great Show and I plan on sharing this show to the rest of my family members and friends. Happy New Year 2023.