When they hear the word catsup most Americans immediately picture a thick tomato-based sauce, perhaps topping hamburgers or hot dogs, or served on the side as a dip for French fries. But the history of this sauce is so much deeper and varied that the bottle sauce we know. Even the name of catsup has evolved. Initially called ketchup, variations of this date back to the late 17th century. The variant spellings of catchup and catsup first showed up in print in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
Alan Davidson in The Penguin Companion to Food defines ketchup as “a general name for a range of salty, spicy, rather liquid condiments.” The sauce is one of the many adaptations of foods that the British brought from their colonies. There are various theories as to the origin of the name. It was probably adapted either from a Chinese word for pickled fish or possibly either a Malay or Indonesian word for types of savory sauces.
Catsups have been made from a variety of foods. The common tomato version first appeared in the early 19th century. Initially the most common varieties were made with either mushrooms or walnuts. This recipe comes from The Dominion Cook Book (Toronto, 1899)
The refrigerator referred to here is the non-electric appliance often referred to as an ice box, requiring large blocks of ice to keep the interior cold.
Recipes for mushroom and walnut catsups were common through the early 20th century. Other varieties include those based on the following ingredients, although some are more common than others. For instance In looking through a wide range of 18th and 19th century cookbooks I only found one instance of liver catsup. Fruits were probably the most common
meat/seafood: anchovy, beef liver, cockles, lobster, oyster
nuts: butternut, walnuts
fruits: apple, blackberry, cherry, cranberry, currant, elderberry, gooseberry, grape, lemon, peach, plum, raspberry, whortleberry
vegetables: celery, corn, cucumber, green or red bell peppers, horseradish, kidney bean, mushroom, squash, tomato
The cranberry version looked interesting for a Thanksgiving condiment.
New Delineator Recipes, 1929 p. 222
The American Woman’s Cook Book, 1944, p. 698
My version of the cranberry catsup uses the 14 oz. (340 gm.) packages normally found in US stores. The flavor is a bit sharp from the vinegar and tart berries and I’ve used it as a glaze for baked pork chops, mixed with mayonnaise as a sweet and tangy sauce for fish, and as a replacement in baked beans. All turned out great.
2 14-ounce packages of fresh cranberries
1 cup water
3/4 cup cider vinegar
2 cups sugar
1/2 tablespoon cloves
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon allspice
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Add cranberries and water to a saucepan and cook until the berries burst. Sieve to remove skins and seeds. Add the puree and remaining ingredients to the saucepan, bring to a boil and then lower the heat to allow the mixture to simmer. Stir occasionally and cook until thickened. This took about an hour in my experiment.
I poured the finished catsup into individual containers and store them in the freezer until needed.
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