Ketchup Was Once Sold as Medicine - Not Food

#1. The Ancient Origins: Fish Sauce Without Tomatoes

Today, ketchup is synonymous with sweet, thick red tomato condiment squeezed over french fries. Yet for most of its history, ketchup contained no tomatoes whatsoever.

The ancestor of ketchup originated in maritime Southeast Asia and southern China as 'ke-chiap' (鮭汁 in Hokkien dialect) - a dark, pungent sauce made from fermented fish entrails and soybeans used by sailors to preserve food on long voyages.

In the late 17th century, British and Dutch traders brought bottles of fish paste back to Europe. British cooks spent the 18th century attempting to recreate the umami condiment using mushrooms, walnuts, oysters, and anchovies.

#2. The Poison Apple: Fear of the Tomato

The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is native to western South America. When Spanish conquistadors introduced it to Europe in the 16th century, it was viewed with intense suspicion.

Because tomatoes belong to the nightshade family (Solanaceae) - which includes deadly belladonna - and because wealthy aristocrats eating off lead pewter plates experienced lead poisoning from the tomato's acidic juice, the fruit was nicknamed 'the poison apple' and grown exclusively as ornamental garden decor.

#3. Dr. Bennett's Miracle Cure: The Ketchup Pill Craze

In 1834, Dr. John Cook Bennett, an eccentric physician and president of the medical department at Willoughby University in Ohio, announced that tomatoes possessed extraordinary therapeutic properties.

Bennett claimed tomato extract could cure diarrhea, dyspepsia (indigestion), rheumatism, and jaundice, advising patients to consume tomato ketchup regularly as an herbal medicine.

Bennett partnered with patent-medicine entrepreneur Archibald Miles to manufacture 'Dr. Miles' Compound Extract of Tomato' - concentrated ketchup rolled into medicinal pills sold in drugstores across America. The fad sparked a national ketchup rush, with competing snake-oil salesmen selling laxatives disguised as tomato medicine before fraudulent claims caused the market to collapse in 1850.

#4. Henry J. Heinz and the Modern Condiment

Freed from medicinal claims, ketchup returned to American kitchens as a table condiment. However, early commercial recipes frequently contained rotting tomato pulp, coal-tar food dyes, and toxic sodium benzoate preservatives.

In 1876, Henry J. Heinz transformed the industry by utilizing thick, naturally pectin-rich ripe red tomatoes, distilled vinegar, and brown sugar. The natural acidity of vinegar and high sugar content acted as natural preservatives, allowing Heinz to sell his clear glass bottles with the famous slogan: 'Cleanliness and purity.'

Not for curing cholera or rheumatism. However, tomatoes are rich in lycopene (a powerful antioxidant), vitamin C, and dietary potassium, which offered genuine nutritional benefits to 19th-century Americans suffering from scurvy and poor diets.

At the time, unscrupulous competitors sold adulterated ketchup in dark brown bottles to hide mold, fillers, and coal-tar dyes. Heinz used transparent glass to prove to consumers that his product was pure and unadulterated.

Mushroom ketchup remains a traditional British condiment today, particularly celebrated by chefs as a rich, savory umami base for steak gravies and meat pies.