Homemade ketchup

We were given large quantities of tomatoes by my uncle from Styria; because of the very warm weather they were already very ripe. We made ketchup from them, and this is how. Large white onions are slowly sweated in simmering oil with bay leaves until translucent. The onions are taken out, then caramelised with brown sugar and deglazed with cider vinegar, everything reduced to a syrup, then the washed tomatoes are added. The braised onions go back in, and fresh ginger, long Assam pepper and a little garlic are added too. It is seasoned with fish and oyster sauce, and everything is slowly reduced over a low heat. As early as the mid-18th century ketchup was sold as a ready-made sauce in grocers' shops. Even then countless different recipes for the red sauce were published. The base of the sauce was usually mushrooms, fish or walnuts. There was also a version with mussels and oysters.

Origin of the name

The name ketchup probably goes back to the Hokkien word kê-tsiap, meaning roughly the brine of pickled fish. Traders brought such sauces to Malaysia and Indonesia, where they were called kechap or ketjap.

The way to Europe

Dutch and English sailors brought the sauce to Europe in the 17th century. According to the Oxford English Dictionary the earliest written record of the English word catchup dates from 1699 and describes it as a high East-India sauce.

English sauce and tomatoes

The English sauce of the 18th century was dark and vinegar-led. Tomatoes only came in relatively late. Today's tomato ketchup was not invented by a single person.

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