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Ketchup

Page history last edited by b.gulati@... 4 years, 11 months ago

 

KETCHUP

 

INTRODUCTION

 

The ancestor of the modern ketchup was tomato-free. Ketchup as prepared and sold today is a a thick tomato based sauce which serves as an invariable companion to greasy foods such as hot dogs, potato fries, burgers. The average person will consume three bottles of ketchup each year, making it one of the most stocked condiments in pantries beaten only by mustard and mayonnaise. The origins of the sauce in popular culture are assumed to be American owing to the country's branded Heinz founded in 1869, now commonly synonymous, and often used as a prefix for ketchup. Now used as tomato relish or condiment, ketchup originated as a piquant sauce in Southeast Asia made from soybeans and fish. In Britain, travellers and sailors who ventured to the East brought home recipes to be made in imitation: the primary ingredients mentioned in cookbooks and house manuals in Britain in the eighteenth century are mushrooms, wine, vinegar and spices. The piquant sauce has been referred to by three names most used in recorded texts- 'catchup', 'catsup' and 'ketchup'; and each variant has its partisans. The trans-Atlantic journey of ketchup and its multitudinous reproductions offer a unique lens into the trade circles between the West and the East, globalisation, and the rapid commercialisation of the product driven by sales of Sugar in the 19th century. Interestingly, until the 1850s, in Britain and in America, ketchup was not as calorie dense as it is today because of refined sugar - with the high production of sugar in tropical America 1850 onwards, sugar was cheap and abundant. Standardised ketchup uses salt, sugar and vinegar in quantity, ingredients not chosen incidentally since humans naturally crave salt and sugar. Salt, however, retained its position in recipes even in the 18th century. 

 

Ketchup finds itself, in the 18th century, at a rare intersection of cookery, medicine and culture for specifically the British gentlewoman who presided over the household as chef, doctor and pharmacist. The first documented recipe of "katchup" was published in the The Compleat Housewife: or Accomplish’d Gentlewoman’s Companion written by Eliza Smith in 1727 made with anchovies, mushrooms and horseradish. 

 


 

CONTENTS:

 

I. History and Etymology

 

II. Recipes, and its Makers in the 18th Century 

 

III. Household and Medicine

 

IV. Ketchup in 18th Century Literature

 

V. Ketchup in Crime

 


 

 

History and Etymology


The history of the condiment is particularly interesting as it possesses inherent links to the burgeoning of the British Empire especially in the 18th century represented in the traveller's expeditions not just for the trade of, but also inspiration for foods - and the gendered advertisements and manuals circulated in Britain during this time. Ketchup appears in cookbooks bearing recipes targeted at women, increasingly after 1750, as a necessary, new and exciting ingredient for the English household. The texts wherein ketchup makes an appearance as remedial medicine, is not coincidentally written my men; specifically traveling men, who remained at higher risks than the locals of contracting foreign diseases. Ketchup's early success can be attributed to its commonalities in taste and colour to the already existing fish sauces in Britain. British cookbook authors expropriated the name ketchup to cash in on its exotic Asian origin - many texts suggest that ketchup was indeed not a Western invention, but was brought over to Britain from the East. The British probably first came into contact with ketchup in what is today known as Indonesia. One of the earlier recipes for ketchup was identified as originating in Bencoulin: a British settlement established in 1684 in Sumatra. Bencoulin provisioned as the centre of the British pepper and spice trade during the late 17th and 18th centuries. The settlement was the only one harboured by the British in South East Asia at the time of its founding, and was later ceded in exchange for the Dutch colony of Malacca. In present day Indonesia, kecap or ketjap simply means sauce, and usually denotes one made from fermented black soybeans. While the early word ketchup may have been derived from Indonesia by the British, its recipes and preparation suffered a dramatic change which rendered it unrecognisable in Asia, and allowed for British variations to flourish in not just the UK, but also in colonial America. The image below extracted from a text detailing the goods imported into the kingdom mention ketchup, amongst others, from the East Indies.

 

 

 

      Image 1. 

 

Majority of the lexicographers believe that ketchup derives its name from the Hokkien word ke-tsiap, which translates to pickled fish sauce. Until the late 19th century, the sauce was used as a mixture in gravies as opposed to a condiment, both, in Asia and in Britain. In cookbooks in Britain in the 18th century, mushrooms appear almost in every recipe regardless of the decade in which the recipe was published. The etymology of the word is debated, and fascinating. The preparations of ketchup vary by continent, use, and name. Some believe the origins of the sauce are unequivocally Chinese, however, the modern recipe which uses tomatoes, sugar, vinegar has been modified from its earliest appearance so much so, that the continental disparity has resulted in starkly different iterations, bearing no resemblance to the mother recipe which was used to flavour meats, and not as a tangy condiment for fried foods.

 

Conflicting etymologies mention the Malay word ketchap and the Chinese word from the Amoy dialect, ketsiap. However, both terms refer to the same substance produced by the pickling of shellfish in brine. One thing that remains clear is that not longer the Eastern world opened up to European trade and commerce, the notion of a sauce, bearing the name resembling ketchup, made its was across the waters and into the Empire where iterations of fish sauces were already somewhat commonplace. It is therefore no coincidence that colonisation and the trade that it forced, played a pivotal role in ketchup's later popularity and multitudinous recipes. Early english recipes, some as old as recorded in 1680, even before Eliza Smith published her recipe; used oysters and walnuts of which the juice was kept and the solid matter discarded. Pickled oysters were also called ketchup. 

 

 

The Appearance and Usage of Terms for Ketchup in Texts through 1700-1800

Accessed via Historical Texts

 

Ketchup

Catsup

Catchup

 

 

 

 

 

Recipes, and its Makers in the 18th Century 


I. British Nationalism and Ketchup

Cooking, and the practices that surrounded cooking in the 18th century will be alien to our economised and globalised modern understanding. First, the recipes in cookbooks during this time are cholesterol rich, made clear in the overzealous use of eggs and butter for bases of gravies and sauces. Second, the sophistication of cookery remained confined to the domestic kitchen rather than restaurants as it is today, and for that reason cooking manuals from the 18th century illustrate elaborate techniques with the lady of the house as the general of a troop of cooks, in charge of husbandry. Further to this, because of lack of refrigeration, the uncooked food could not be stored for long periods at a time. All these considerations bear significance in the discussion of making and preserving ketchup. 

 

 

Hannah Glasse 

 

Hannah Glasse, the author of The Art of Cookery, published in 1747, was one of the most lauded cookery writers in the 18th century in Britain whose book remained a best seller for over a hundred years. It is noteworthy that although her book is targeted at a female audience, it is written in simple language, to ease the gentlewoman's workload in the household by providing recipes for meats, sauces, and gravies - including "catchup", for the servant class and others of the lower socio-economic status. Glasse wrote vehemently against the French cuisine and its pomposity and need for luxury in preparation. For Glasse, patriotism begins in the kitchen; and the French are not to be equated with high tastes and culture. 

 

Ketchup finds itself, much like Glasse's book which details how to make it, at an intersection of British identity dictated by empire, and gendered roles in English households. This finds evidence in a chapter dedicated to British travellers in Glasse's book, entitled, "For Captains of Ships" (Image 2). The first subsection itself details a recipe of "catchup" for the purpose of preservation for twenty years, especially for British sailors. Britain, in the 18th century, principally becomes a world power owing to its naval superiority first over Holland, and subsequently over Napoleonic France; which explains Glasse's disposal of the French cuisine as tedious. Glasse, in this sense, wants Britain's heroes to be well fed. Ketchup, therefore, finds itself at the heart of nutrition, diet and wellness. 

 

 

 

 

Image 2.

 

 

 

Image 3.

 

 

Glasse's recipe for "catchup" shares some commonplace ingredients also used in Eliza Smith's recipe: mushrooms, anchovies, alcohol (beer for Glasse, white wine for Eliza), ginger, and cloves. Both recipes come together in making a fish sauce out of the ingredients - Glasse advocates for melted butter and stale beer, while Eliza uses horseradish. It is also to be noted here that Glasse meant for the sauce to be preserved for longer than what the standard in-house recipe enumerated. 

 

 

Eliza Smith

 

In 1742, Eliza Smith became the first cookbook author to be published in colonial America. Smith's book was popular, to say the least, running to more than a dozen editions. Not only is her recipe for "katchup" (image 4), the first to be published in a cookbook, but in her preface, Eliza herself describes of how she has been employed in noble families and thus, it can be deduced that she writes from the capacity of a housekeeper, although virtually nothing is known about her personal life. In her book, she claims that her recipes are for the frugal household, but also to lay a sumptuous table. The recipes are easy to understand, much like Glasse's, and are essentially English in their preparation. She documented the importance of preparing English game, was one of the first cookery writers to use potatoes for savoury dishes, and authors of cookbooks writing after, like Hannah Glasse, use largely the same ingredients she prescribed for ketchup. Eliza's book is unequivocally for a British audience, which may use ingredients imported into the kingdom, but re-defines them to suit English constitutions and English palates. in her preface, she says, the preparations of the these dishes are natural, wholesome, and provisions of her home country. Ketchup, in this light, is an important recipe in her book, as it is in all its successors, because championing its recipe becomes significant in making British food, primarily by

British gentlewomen,

for British households in the 18th century

              Image 4.

 

British nationalism, therefore, finds an unexpected ally in the women as housekeepers and writers of cookbooks to preserve the identity of the country in the domestic kitchen: wives of British men presiding as the CEOs of their houses, in matters of cookery and home medicine attempt to consolidate the idea of being British through the food they prepare and serve. Ketchup finds itself at the tables of most households in Britain in the 18th century, not coincidentally, but as an ingredient journeying from the East brought into the country by expeditioners, and remade in the image of the taste buds of the British populace. 

 

 

II. Mushroom Ketchup

(See Also: Household and Medicine, Ketchup in Crime)

 

The origins of ketchup itself may be hotly debated, but the mushroom variant originated in Great Britain. Ketchup is called "the liquor extracted from mushrooms" (Smith, Worthington, G. 23), and by the 19th century, is used in all household kitchens, with abundant recipes for preparation. Mushrooms are regarded as a highly alkalescent food and for persons with "strong stomachs" (Nisbet, W. 315) The process of cleaning, pickling, and storing them is as tedious as making ketchup out of them. Another reason extracting sauce from mushrooms as ketchup is laborious, is because certain varieties of mushrooms are noxious, and can cause poisoning when ingested. Recipes for mushroom ketchup surface in several cookbooks not only as a sauce to add flavour to meats and fish, but also to give a rich, browning colour to the dish being prepared. Malcolm Morris, in his book, The book of health (1883) devotes a whole section to the naming of fungi and says that before choosing mushrooms to be used as pickles or to make ketchup, there are indicators of the poisonous variety that one must be privy to: "astringent styptic taste and a disagreeable pungent odour" (Morris, M. 144) He further says that the mushrooms, morels and truffles used in England are subterranean fungi, never appearing above the surface, unlike poisonous mushrooms that have a warty cap and fragments of membrane attached to their upper surface.  

 

Michael Morris names two varieties of mushrooms that produce excellent qualities of ketchup: The Champignon and Horse Mushroom. Below is a page from Morris's book which lists the mushrooms which are edible and can be used for making ketchup under the 'Edible List' provided they are treated with salt in an earthen jar. Morris documents in his book how he has seen persons gathering fungi for ketchup to be sold in markets, and meadow mushroom is another species which is popular for the making of the sauce.

 

Here, it is noteworthy that mushrooms must have been so rampantly utilised in pickling and making ketchup because Britain didn't have to import them: the pastures and woodlands teemed with mushrooms of the edible variety that were there for picking all seasons throughout

the year. 

 

 

  Image 5.

 

Mushroom ketchup solidifies as one recipe for all English households, taking inspiration from its predecessors, but replacing walnuts and anchovies and horseradish as the primary ingredient to not only be prepared at home, but also to be bottled and sold. While there is a gradual shift in the use of ingredients until we reach the abundance of mushrooms in all cookbooks, the targeted audience remains the same: women, and even young girls who are taught cookery in school as an important life skill to especially manage the household. 

 

Amongst a plethora of cookbooks bearing in their titles the words lady, housewife, and housekeeper, below is a recipe from The lady's, housewife's, and cookmaid's assistant (Taylor, E. 1795). The title itself is self explanatory in realising who these recipes are aimed at. The preparations of mushroom ketchup bear resemblance in the repeated appearance of the use of salt and earthen jars, as also seen in Michael Morris's text. Ginger, cloves, and pepper too remain standard for seasoning. What is also fascinating is that search terms need to be altered to reflect the different variants of spellings used for ketchup - for instance, the excerpt from the book below was published in 1795, which is indicative of the fact that as decades progressed in the 18th century, the word "catchup" became more heavily featured in cooking manuals and house-books than its contemporary variant. 

 

The ketchup extracted from mushrooms was mean to be kept for longer, hence, salt was added to nearly every recipe to preserve its colour and taste naturally. 

 

        Image 6.

 

 

III. Walnut Ketchup

(See also: Ketchup in Literature)

 

Walnut ketchup was a purported favourite of Jane Austen's. Walnut ketchup was made of fresh green walnuts steeped several days in a fermenter - most commonly a type of alcohol, in this case below, red wine; and then eventually like the other recipes boiled down with other spices including ginger, cloves and pepper. The recipe below, published in the last decade of the 18th century, calls for walnuts and anchovies as the primary ingredient instead of mushrooms. The addition of fish - anchovies, makes it clear that walnut ketchup was utilised, above all else, as a sauce for the flavouring for different kinds of fish. Like mushroom ketchup, this variant made of walnuts was used in flavouring fish. Whether or not it added the same browning colour as mushrooms is unclear, as recipes detailing ketchup made of mushrooms far exceed those made of walnuts. 

 

 

Image 7.

 

 

 

Household and Medicine


Ketchup, particularly of the mushroom variety, becomes a staple in all pantries in British households by the end of the 18th century. As its use in sauces and flavourings increases, so does its reputation as a home remedy. Mushroom ketchup surfaces in numerous texts written by men, for both, men and women, as a food pharmaceutical. Its mention and usage does not limit itself to cookbooks, mushroom ketchup starts increasingly appearing in diet and wellness books, remedial medicine, and as a topical ointment for maladies of the skin. Therefore, the more ways that are discovered to preserve, sell, and store ketchup, the more usefulness it gains to maintain a healthy lifestyle, as dictated by cooks and physicians alike.  

 

Mushroom ketchup makes repeated appearances in the treatment of skin disorders, specifically those contracted from overseas by British travellers.

 

1. Ring worms show themselves in small red pimples, in a circular form, containing a thin acrid fluid. Movement exacerbates the condition and scratching at the red areas cause the fluid to disperse and leaves the patient at a higher risk of infection in the neighbouring areas. In the remedy of ring worms, if the disease has not become inveterate, a prescription of bathing the affected parts with strong astringents proves sufficient, as Robert Thomas writes in 1790. A weak mercurial ointment applied to the skin helps in eradicating the disease over time. In unlikely cases internal medicine is prescribe, and brimstone (an archaic word for sulfur) is recommended. Of ketchup, he writes, "Mumroom ketchup made ufe of as an external application to ring-worms, is faid to be an effectual remedy for eradicating them." (110)

 

Robert Thomas, in another text, published not long after in 1807, writes that the itch caused by the ring worm is remedied by the application of mushroom ketchup to the pimples on the skin which hitherto have proved efficacious. 

 

2. Weight Loss - Horace Dobell was a famous English physician and medical writer, a little after the end the of the 18th century. He wrote a text detailing recipes for the loss of weight, blood spitting and lung disease. This is important as wellness was equated with low body fat, as it is today. He writes of a recipe of a concoction of egg whites and yolks, beaten, adding sherry or brandy to the mixture, pancreatic powder and sugar and nutmeg to be taken as a liquid four times a day. This he call the "special nutritive", of when someone tires, they should have an "invalid soup" consisting of gravy beef and mushroom ketchup. 

 

3. Cookery - Despite the multifarious recipes with diverse tastes, textures and smells, written by several cookbook authors, ketchups performed similar culinary functions: to add flavour and zest and colour to meats and fish and other vegetarian dishes that were unsatisfactory and lacking in heterogeneity. Ketchup was added to soups, gravies, stews, and even in other sauces for browning, and a sour tangy taste. Ketchup was initially only a fish sauce, called rightly so, as it helped prevent the decomposition of fish - therefore, before recipes ran rampant on how to preserve ketchup itself with salt and alcohol, ketchup was used as a preservative to increase the keeping quality of fish. Ketchup became a staple in pantries due to its longevity (refer to Hannah Glasse), but most importantly it preceded all fish sauces because its odour was not pungent. Most ketchup recipes called for the significant reduction of the sauce through boiling which meant that only a few tablespoons needed to be used to add flavour since the formula was highly concentrated- this further ensured that ketchup remained compact, easy to store, and easily transportable which added to its unabated popularity in Britain and colonial America. It must be noted that sugar did not come into the ketchup bottle until the latter half of the 19th century as a preservative because of its inflated prices not conducive to domestic cooking.  

 


Ketchup in 18th Century Literature


Jonathan Swift

 

A PANEGYRICK ON THE D---N, in the Person of a Lady in the North .

1730

 

"She sent her Priests in Wooden Shoes 
From haughty Gaul to make Ragous. 

  nstead of wholsome Bread and Cheese, 
To dress their Soupes and Fricassyes; 
And, for our home-bred British Chear, 
Botargo, Catsup, and Caveer." (263-68)

 

Catsup first appears in 18th century literary texts as written by Jonathan Swift in Poems Composed at Market Hill.

 

 

 

Thomas Morton 

THE WAY TO GET MARRIED; A COMEDY. IN FIVE ACTS. AS PERFORMED AT THE THEATRE-ROYAL, COVENT-GARDEN, SCENE II.

1796

 

"Dash.

Butter firkin! curse it, and sink it, Toby, talk like a gentleman. But, I say, you seem a little damaged.

Allsp.

Yes; funny, an't I? I got hold of a little bottle, such as they put ketchup in—by the bye I can sell you some very fine ketchup, if you want any—It was devilish good, yoyeo they call it.

Dash.

Yoyeo! psha! noyau.

Allsp.

Well, well, noyau. Egad, when I found it cost a guinea, and that I was to pay for it—I drank it all every drop.

Dash.

A guinea! bagatelle! I'll put you in a way to drink it every day."

 

 

 

Titus Maccius Plautus

THE PERSIAN. SCENE III.

1772-74

 

 

"And misbecomes you mightily—for 'troth 
I come Hungurio, not Saturio hither—

 

Tox.


But you shall eat—The dainties smoak within— 
I've order'd last night's remnants to be warm'd—

 

 

Sat.


A ham is better cold the second day—

 

 

Tox.


So have I order'd it to be serv'd up.

 

 

Sat.


Hast any ketchup?

 

 

Tox.


                                         Psha! Psha!—Ask you that?

 

 

Sat.


Nay, you're a man of taste.

 

Tox."

 

 

The searches for ketchup in primary literary texts may be few and far between - and mostly in the latter half of the 18th century; however, what can be gleaned from the usage of the term in these plays and Swift's poem, is that ketchup was slowly becoming a staple food in conversations about dining, not entirely removed from even literature. 

 

 

 

Ketchup in Crime


Poisoning

 

Primarily made from mushrooms in the latter half of the 18th century, ketchup finds itself as an unlikely defendant in many court proceedings and assassinations. This is because all mushrooms are not edible (refer to 'Edible List'), and those that are, may prove indigestible if not washed and pickled properly for sauces. Below is a criminal court proceeding detailing the murder of one Ms. Jane Gregory. "Catsup" is the 'murder weapon' so the speak, as the victim falls ill after ingesting the bottle's contents. Noxious ketchup only arises in question when it is made from mushrooms. Mushrooms are watery in nature, and owing to this they undergo putrefaction much more easily than other vegetables in the kingdom which results in the development of poisonous states if not salted and picked properly. The symptoms of poisoning of mushrooms come on at different periods of time and more often than not result in giddiness, pain, purging, and vomiting. Inedible mushrooms remain in the intestines for a long time undigested and if not purged by the likes of castor oil, result in death - as seen below. 

 

 

Image 8.

 

 

Image 9.

 

In perhaps a more light-hearted manner of demonstrating the noxious ingestion of ketchup, above is an excerpt from a satirical writing called "A DISCOURSE OF BORES" which clearly, albeit in a humorous manner tells of the very real threat of death by ketchup - "poisoned by ketchup"

 

 

 

Theft and Murder

 

"70. RALPH GRAHAM was indicted for stealing, on the 10th of November , eighteen ounces of raisins, value 6 d. two glass bottles, value 6 d. half a pint of Madeira, value 9 d. a gill of catchup, value 2 d. a stone jar, value 2 d. two ounces of honey, value 1 d. half an ounce of cinnamon, value 1 d. and four ounces of citron, value 4 d. the property of George Pressey .

The prisoner was porter to the prosecutor, and was stopped going out at night with the raisins and the sugar under his coat; and the rest of the things were found at his lodgings.

GUILTY, 10 d .

Imprisoned Six Months .

Tried by the second Middlesex Jury before Mr. Justice WILSON."

 

 

While it may seem innocuous to steal a gill - equivalent to a quarter of a pint - of ketchup, mushrooms themselves whether in their fresh state or the form of ketchup made for valuable articles of commerce in the 18th and 19th centuries, because not only were they being used in every house's kitchen, they were also being bottled and sold in markets. By the late 19th century, there were merchants solely for the picking, pickling, and extracting of ketchup from mushrooms, and bottles reached prices of sometimes a penny a pound. 

 

 

 

"246. (M.) Robert Baker was indicted for the wilful murder of Thomas Bushby , May 7 . ++

Henry Townley . The deceased lived in Diot-street, St. George's, Bloomsbury; this Robert Baker lodged in my house for some years.

Q. What is his business?

Townley. He gets mushrooms, and does them up and sells them . On Sunday the 7th of May last the deceased came to my house, and asked for Robert Baker , my wife said he was just gone out, and wondered he did not meet him; she said he was gone to St. Anne's-church; he said he would go and see if he could find him.

Q. What time of the day was this?

Townley. This was about one o'clock. After dinner I lay down on my bed, and between four and five was called up, and told that Baker the prisoner had killed a man. As I was coming out of my room, I saw Baker coming down stairs; O Lord, said he, what have I done! putting his hands together; I said he had done badly indeed, if he had killed a man, as I had been told.

Q. What had you been told?

Townley. There had been a messenger with me, and told me he had seen the man lying dead on a bed, that is in the same room that Baker lies in, in my house. I went for a constable, and went up with him, and saw the deceased lying dead on the floor.

Q. Was you present when the prisoner was before the justice?

Townley. I was.

Q. What did he say there ?

Townley. He said he had not struck the man. He told his worship that Bushby had pushed his head against him, and had flung him on the bed, and beat him. The justice asked him how he got from him, as if the man did not run after him, he made little or no answer.

Q. What did he say they quarrel'd about?

Townley. He said it was about a little catchup, and that he would not let the deceased have it.

John Paget . I was at Mr. Townley's about a quarter of an hour before Mr. Baker came down. He came and called for Mr. Townley, he came down open breasted, without a hat. As he called out Townley, I said to him, Mr. Baker, what do you want with him, he answered it was upon life and death; I said to a man that was with me, let us go up. Baker said to me, the man is drunk. We went up, there I saw the deceased lying dead on his back on a bed. I said I will see whether he is drunk or not. I took him up, and said you have killed the man; he said then, if I had not killed him, he would have killed me. I live at Mr. Townley's.

Faith Henly . I live at Mr. Townley's; I went up stairs and saw Bushby lie dead in the prisoner's room, on a bed, how he died I do not know.

William Eld ridge. I was at Mr. Townley's, and the prisoner came down, and said for God's sake come up stairs, for it is life and death. I went up stairs, and saw the deceased lying cross a bed dead: Baker said he was drunk; I never saw the deceased before, I know not how he came by his death.

Prisoner's defence.

This Thomas Bushby has been with me several times; he came one night, and brought a bottle, and asked me if I would give him some catchup; he fill'd it; I asked him six-pence for it, he said he would have it for nothing , and because I would not let him have it for nothing, he tumbled me down. I fell backwards, and he lay on me, he beat me, I had much ado to get from under him, he was always a notorious drunken man.

Guilty of Manslaughter."

 

 

The court proceeding above is illuminating as, unexpectedly, ketchup becomes the centripetal point of murder in the case. In it we see the exact price of the ketchup as well - six pence - which becomes important in determining the motive for attempted larceny. The murder happens because the victim refuses to pay the price for the ketchup resulting in a brawl. 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Links to Other Pages (mentioned in context):

Poison(s)

Sugar

 


 

 

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Primary Sources:


 

Smith, E. The Compleat Housewife: Or, Accomplish'd Gentlewoman's Companion. London: Printed for R. Ware [and others, 1753. Print.

  In order of importance, it is only befitting this source assume the first position as it published the first recipe of ketchup.

 

Sherman, Sandra. The British housewife: cookery books, cooking and society in eighteenth-century BritainAge of Johnson (16) 2005, pp. 345-50.

This source asks and answers relevant, important questions pertaining to the gastronomical history of foods in 18th century Britain as documented in cookery books. 

 

Smith, Worthington George. Mushrooms and Toadstools. Hardwick and Bogue, London, 1876. 

My search for the history for ketchup invariably led me to the use of mushrooms in Britain: as the primary ingredient in most recipes used at the time, ketchup appears in a lot of texts written about mushrooms. 

 

Nisbet, William.  A practical treatise on diet, and on the most salutary and agreeable means of supporting life and health, by aliment and regimen. R. Phillips, London, 1801. 

A popular sauce in kitchens will find its way into most books on wellness during the time. This source is interesting to gauge the diet and fitness tips available to the British populace in the 18th century, and it unsurprisingly mentions mushroom ketchup. 

 

Morris, Malcolm. The book of health. Cassell, London, 1883, pp. 144-146.

This source is important in my findings as it details the kinds of mushrooms that are fit for consumption, especially in the making of ketchup.

 

Taylor, E. The lady's, housewife's, and cookmaid's assistant. John Taylor, Berwick upon Tweed, 1795.

A recipe on how to make mushroom catchup, explicitly for women. 

 

Thomas, Robert. Medical advice to the inhabitants of warm climates, on the domestic treatment of all the diseases incidental therein. Printed For J. Johnson, St. Paul's Church-yard; J. Strahan, Strand; And W. Richardson, Royal-exchange, London, 1790.

This source is the very first one I found with ease which utilises ketchup as medicine. 

 

Dobell, Horace. On loss of weight, blood-spitting and lung disease. J. & A. Churchill, London, 1880. pp. 260. 

Although this text was published well into the 19th century, it continues the utilisation of mushroom ketchup as remedial medicine under the category of "wellness"

 

 

1.Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 06 April 2019), June 1758, trial of Robert Baker (t17580628-27).

2."CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT." Examiner.1922 (1844): 760. ProQuest. Web.

3.Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 8.0, 06 April 2019), December 1788, trial of RALPH GRAHAM (t17881210-70).  

 

These court proceedings are fascinating in enumerating the ways in which ketchup finds at the centre of trials. 

 

 

Sokolov, Raymond. "Sauce for the Masses." Natural History (pre-1988) 05 1984: 90. ProQuest. Web.

An essay on ketchup's etymology which proved invaluable for my research on the origin of its name, even if the answer still remains unclear!

 

 

Morton, Thomas. The Way to Get Married (1796). London: Printed for T. N. Longman etc.], London, 1796. ProQuest.

 

Plautus, Titus Maccius. The Persian (1772–1774). London: Printed for T. Becket and P. A. de Hondt ... etc.], London, 1774. ProQuest. Web.

 

 

Secondary Sources:


 

Cumo, C. Foods that Changed History: How Foods Shaped Civilization from the Ancient World to the Present, ABC-CLIO, 2015.

 This book provides brief, digestible histories of popular cultural foods such as ice-cream, chocolate, dumplings etc. that we would see stocked in any supermarket's grocery aisle.

 

Walker, H. Fish: Food From the Waters, Oxford Symposium, 1998.

Ketchup originated as a fish sauce, and this title is especially important because I, like many others, do not associate the sauce with fish!

 

Rundell, Maria Eliza. "Ketchups and Essence." Domestic Economy, and Cookery, for Rich and Poor: Containing an Account of the Best English, Scotch, French, Oriental, and Other Foreign Dishes Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2012. 170-209. Print.

Another interesting text which uses walnuts, anchovies and mushrooms in its recipes for ketchup, and details its use as a sauce to be used as a preservative for salmon and cod. 

 

 

 

Images:


Image 1 - The Times (London, England) Monday, July 19, 1790, Issue 1738, p.4.

Image 2The Art of Cookery - Title Page. 1747. British Library, pp.18.

Image 3 - "COOKERY." The Woman at Home: Annie S. Swan's magazine, n.d., p. 313

Image 4The compleat English HOUSEWIFE. 1727. Universal magazine of knowledge and pleasure, June 1747-Dec.1803, (2), pp. 79-80

Image 5Mushrooms and Toadstools. 1876. pp. 11, pp. 25.

Image 6The universal cook, and city and country housekeeper. 1792. R. Noble. pp. 370

Image 7  - The ladies' assistant for regulating and supplying her table.  1786. J. Walter.  pp. 341

 Image 8"CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT." Examiner.1922 (1844): 760.

Image 9 "A DISCOURSE OF BORES." New monthly magazine and humorist, Jan.1837 (1838): 396-403. 

 

 

 

Reference Works:


Robb-Smith, A. H. T. "Glasse [née Allgood], Hannah (bap. 1708, d. 1770), writer on cookery and costumier." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  September 23, 2004. Oxford University Press

 

Cox, Nancy. "Smith, Eliza (d. 1732?), writer on cookery." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  September 23, 2004. Oxford University Press.

 


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