Next time you squeeze a ribbon of ketchup onto a plate of fries, pause for a moment. That familiar red condiment has traveled an extraordinary path to get to your table — and tomatoes were nowhere near it for most of the journey. The ketchup you know today is the great-great-grandchild of a fermented fish sauce from southern China, passed through British kitchens, colonial America, and the industrial revolution before a Pittsburgh businessman finally bottled the tomato version we recognize. Every jar you cook at home is a return to ketchup’s roots as a small-batch, carefully seasoned craft product rather than a factory output.
The Chinese Roots: A Fish Sauce Called Kê-tsiap
The story begins along the coast of southern China in the 1600s, where fishermen preserved their catch by fermenting fish with salt in a sauce called kê-tsiap (sometimes spelled kôe-tsiap or kê-chiap). This briny, pungent liquid was a staple seasoning, used the way we might use soy sauce or Worcestershire today. It was salty, umami-rich, and — importantly — it kept for months without refrigeration, which made it valuable on long trading voyages.
British and Dutch traders sailing the South China Sea developed a taste for this fermented sauce in the 17th and 18th centuries. They brought samples and descriptions of it back to Europe, where cooks and merchants tried to recreate the flavor using local ingredients. Nobody in England had access to the exact Chinese recipe, so they improvised. The name stuck even as the contents changed completely, giving us the first of ketchup’s great transformations: the word “ketchup” survived while the fish disappeared.
Ketchup Goes Global: The Age of Mushroom and Walnut Ketchup
Throughout the 1700s, “ketchup” in English-speaking countries meant almost anything except tomatoes. Cookbooks of the era are full of recipes that would baffle a modern ketchup fan. Mushroom ketchup was the most popular version, made by layering mushrooms with salt, letting them release their liquid, then simmering the strained liquor with spices like mace, ginger, and cloves. It was thin, dark, and intensely savory — used to boost the flavor of soups, stews, and sauces.
Walnut ketchup was another beloved variety, made from green walnuts pounded with salt and vinegar, then left to ferment before straining and bottling. Oyster ketchup, anchovy ketchup, and even cucumber ketchup all appeared in recipe collections. In his 1758 book The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, Hannah Glasse included recipes for both mushroom and walnut ketchup, cementing the condiment’s place in British kitchens. The common thread across all these versions was not the base ingredient but the method: extract savory liquid, season it boldly with vinegar and spices, and bottle it for long keeping.
American colonists carried these traditions across the Atlantic. Early American cookbooks, including the 1812 edition of The Cook’s Oracle, listed ketchup recipes for mushrooms, walnuts, and oysters alongside a newcomer that was beginning to catch on — the tomato.
The Tomato Enters the Picture: 19th-Century America
Tomatoes were still treated with suspicion in much of Europe and North America in the early 1800s; many people considered them poisonous because they belong to the nightshade family. But American cooks were more adventurous, and tomato-based recipes began appearing in print. The first published tomato ketchup recipe is credited to Philadelphia scientist and horticulturist James Mease, who included one in his 1812 book Archives of Useful Knowledge. His version called for sliced tomatoes, salt, and brandy, simmered and strained.
Throughout the mid-1800s, tomato ketchup recipes multiplied. A New Orleans physician, Dr. John Cook Bennett, famously promoted tomato ketchup as a medicine in the 1830s, claiming its “pills” could cure everything from diarrhea to indigestion — a marketing scheme that boosted tomato sales even though the pills themselves were almost certainly a fraud. By the 1850s, tomato ketchup had overtaken mushroom and walnut varieties in American popularity, thanks to the tomato’s natural sweetness, vivid color, and abundant pectin, which gave ketchup its body.
Henry Heinz and the Ketchup Revolution
The single most important figure in ketchup history is Henry J. Heinz. In 1876, his company, F. & J. Heinz, introduced its tomato ketchup, and several things set it apart. First, Heinz was obsessed with quality: at a time when competitors bulked up their ketchup with coal tar dyes and preserved it with harsh chemicals, Heinz ketchup was made from ripe tomatoes and preserved naturally with vinegar. Second, he pioneered the use of clear glass bottles so customers could see the product’s purity — a radical act of transparency in an era of food adulteration.
Third, Heinz perfected the thick, slow-pouring texture we now associate with ketchup, achieved by using plenty of tomato solids and natural pectin. The company marketed this viscosity as a sign of quality — the famous “anticipation” of ketchup leaving the bottle. By the early 1900s, Heinz ketchup dominated the American market and, through exports, introduced tomato ketchup to the world. The other varieties — mushroom, walnut, oyster — faded into obscurity, remembered mainly by food historians.
How Homemade Ketchup Fits Into the Story
Here is the part of the story that matters most for you: industrial ketchup, even at its best, is a descendant of a homemade tradition, not the other way around. For two centuries before factories existed, ketchup was always made in small batches at home or by local producers — fermented, simmered, seasoned by hand, and bottled for the household. When you simmer tomatoes, onions, vinegar, and spices in your own kitchen, you are not imitating the factory. You are returning to the original craft that the factories imitated from you, so to speak.
That is also why homemade ketchup can taste so much better than the bottled kind. Commercial ketchup must survive months of shipping and shelf storage, so it relies on tomato concentrate, high-fructose corn syrup, and thickeners like xanthan gum. Your batch only needs to survive a few weeks in the refrigerator, so you can use fresh tomatoes, real vinegar, honest sugar, and no gums at all. The result is brighter, fresher, and entirely yours — flavored exactly the way you like it.
A Quick Timeline of Ketchup
| Era | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1600s | Chinese kê-tsiap, a fermented fish sauce, used in southern China |
| 1700s | British traders bring the name home; mushroom and walnut ketchups dominate |
| 1812 | James Mease publishes the first tomato ketchup recipe in America |
| 1830s | Tomato ketchup pills are briefly marketed as medicine |
| 1876 | Heinz introduces its tomato ketchup in clear glass bottles |
| 1900s | Tomato ketchup becomes a global staple; other varieties fade away |
| Today | Home cooks revive small-batch ketchup with real ingredients |
Frequently Asked Questions
Did ketchup really come from fish sauce?
Yes. The word “ketchup” derives from the southern Chinese term kê-tsiap, which referred to a fermented fish sauce. British traders adopted the name in the 1600s and 1700s and applied it to their own homemade versions, which used mushrooms, walnuts, and eventually tomatoes. The name traveled; the original ingredients did not.
Why did tomato ketchup win over mushroom and walnut versions?
Tomatoes won for three practical reasons: they are naturally sweet, so ketchup needed less added sugar; their bright red color looked appealing in the bottle; and their high pectin content produced a thick, clingy texture without extra thickeners. Industrial producers like Heinz also found tomatoes easy to grow at scale, which sealed the deal.
What was in old-fashioned ketchup before Heinz?
Early American tomato ketchup recipes from the 1800s typically called for tomatoes, salt, vinegar, and spices such as cloves, cinnamon, mace, and allspice. Some versions included brandy as a preservative, and many were much thinner and more spiced than today’s mild, sweet ketchup. Homemade recipes today often revive those bolder spice profiles.
Is homemade ketchup more “authentic” than store-bought?
In a sense, yes. For most of ketchup’s 400-year history, it was a homemade product — fermented and simmered in small batches with whole ingredients. Industrial ketchup is a relatively recent invention. Making ketchup at home with real tomatoes, vinegar, and spices is closer to the condiment’s original craft tradition than any factory bottle.
Key Takeaways
- Ketchup began as kê-tsiap, a fermented fish sauce from 1600s southern China, brought to Europe by traders.
- For most of the 1700s, “ketchup” meant mushroom, walnut, or oyster versions — tomatoes arrived late, with the first published recipe in 1812.
- Heinz’s 1876 tomato ketchup — sold in clear bottles to prove its purity — turned a homemade craft into a global industry.
- Making ketchup at home returns to the condiment’s original small-batch roots, with fresher ingredients and no factory additives.
Now that you know the remarkable journey behind your favorite condiment, why not become part of its story? Try a small batch of homemade ketchup this weekend — you will taste the difference that real tomatoes and whole spices make. Then explore our other guides, from choosing ingredients to perfecting texture, and keep the craft tradition alive in your own kitchen.