Kê-tsiap, catsup or ketchup?

By 12:00 PM



Kê-tsiap, catsup or ketchup?
When I was 4 years old, my mom planted a bowl of still fuming, freshly brewed mắm nêm under my nose (think fish sauce pungency x 100 - while fish sauce only uses the strained salty liquid extracted from fermented anchovy, mắm nêm uses the whole fish). It chilled me to the core. I don't think I ever recuperated from the event, and today still the warning stimulus of fish sauce alone automatically signals my olfactory memory. Tragic, I know. To be fair though, I was a little devil in the kitchen and had been pestering her the whole day. I ended up sulking on the sofa, with wounded pride and nostrils, and probably fell asleep watching reruns of Ned's Newt on Teletoon.

 ...And when I woke up, I was never the same again (too dramatic? ok, maybe).



My childhood years from that point on was quite fishsauce-less, and I was very satisfied with my naked meals. Flavors of lettuce chlorophyll in gỏi cuốn (summer rolls), unmasked by any dipping sauce, rice noodles in all of their starchy glory; I loved it all despite the lack of our traditional liquid umami. It flabbergasted my relatives (still does, actually). In the eyes of many I developed a bland palate, but it was plenty tasty to me. 



That led me to believe that all condiments were superfluous (I was a beautiful little fool). Then, I started elementary school. One of the annual events were the Olympic Games, munchkin-version. We had obstacle courses, hula hoop hurdles, egg-and-spoon races, and my personal favorite: lunch break. With a complementary BBQ. That's when I got acquainted with Ketchup & Mustard, garbed in their iconic Heinz bottle - which, in a BBQ world, are akin to the Batman & Robin of hot-dogs. I didn't care much for mustard, but ketchup. A rose by any other name would taste just as good. ...or something like that. 

Years later (as in 4 days ago), I learnt that ketchup, my very first condiment love, actually means 
...
preserved fish sauce 
in a Chinese Hokkien dialect of southern Fujian province. 

...What were the odds? Well screw you too, Irony.

Kê-tsiap, catsup or ketchup?
More than 500 years ago, Chinese and Malaysians used kê-tsiap as a dipping sauce, made from the brine of fermented fish. Fujian was a bustling seafaring hub at the time, and when British and Dutch merchants landed on South-East Asia trailing exotic spices, it is likely that kê-tsiap changed hands. In Great Britain, catsup gradually took over kê-tsiap, but the British still flavored it with ingredients like stale beer, oysters, mushrooms and anchovies in an attempt to replicate the flavor encountered in Asia. According to National Geographic, "mushroom ketchup was even a purported favorite of Jane Austen". 

American settlers borrowed the British's catsup and tinkered with its recipe, flavoring it with whatever spices they had with them: cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. Over time, the name catsup transitioned into ketchup. The commercial, iconic American ketchup as we know it today only started to take shape when tomatoes entered the picture in the 19th century. However, tomato pulp also made the condiment harder to preserve. Consequently, the need for better preservation drove a dramatic increase in the amount of vinegar and sugar of ketchup's recipe - leading to a sweet and tart chutney, very similar to Heinz's product nowadays.  

Despite our similar ethnic roots, ketchup is, sadly, seldom found in my fridge. Admittedly, I don't scarf it down as much as I used to in my younger years. However, I have been experimenting with sauces quite a bit lately, and a number of them (notably BBQ sauces) ask for ketchup. This homemade recipe turned out to be quite handy (and it tastes surprisingly similar to Heinz!).  

P.S. The little introductory story is just a running gag between me and my parents - to justify my distaste of fish sauce. I can't quite explain why, but I never grew accustomed to the smell.

Homemade Ketchup: confirmed.

Homemade Ketchup
Adapted from Simply Scratch

Ingredients:
1 can tomato paste (5.5 oz)
30 ml honey
30 ml dark brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
A pinch of allspice
75 ml water
45 ml red wine vinegar 

Preparation:
1. In a medium saucepan, combine all ingredients. Whisk until smooth and sugar is completely dissolved.
2. (Optional) Cook over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil, then reduce heat, and let simmer until you reach the consistency that you prefer (only if needed - personally I thought the original consistency was fine)
3. Let cool and store in the fridge.


References:
Jurafsky, Dan. "The Cosmopolitan Condiment: an exploration of Ketchup's Chinese origins". Slate, 30 May 2012. Web. 30 March 2016. 
Moskin, Julia. "'Pass the Ketchup' Could Bring Surprises". The New York Times, 9 Aug. 2011. Web. 29 March 2016.
Wiggins, Jasmine. "How was Ketchup invented?" National Geographic: The Plate, National Geographic, 21 April 2014. Web. 29 March 2016. 

About the Author

Half-baker. Half-bookworm. Full-fledged daydreamer.

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