Ketchup: the red stuff that makes fries worth eating, burgers complete, and hot dogs… controversial. But did you know America’s favorite condiment started as a gooey stew of fermented fish guts slowly cooked in the sun? That’s not a punchline, that’s history! And also possibly a biohazard.
In this video from Great Big Story, we learn that ketchup didn’t start with tomatoes, or America, or sanity: it began in 6th-century China as a sauce made of fish intestines, bladders, and whatever else fell out when nobody was looking. And how did they prep it? Just mix it all together and leave it to rot in the summer heat for 20 days. Bon appétit!
Fast forward through centuries of culinary evolution (featuring mushroom ketchup, peach ketchup, and whatever British people were doing), and eventually some genius in Philly thought, “What if we make this not horrifying?” Enter: tomatoes.
Watch the video and give thanks that your fries are no longer swimming in a fishy sun soup.