Newsweek linked a Tiktok video of a man making Roman fries with ketchup.
Garum
The sauce on the fries is Garum with wine and starch as a thickener. Max Miller has done a show on garum, but silk road gourmet has also made their own garum using old Roman methods and they have thoughts about the boiling fish method of Garum creation that Max uses.
It turns out there is a direct line from garum to ketchup. And that line involves a lot of change.
Definitions
First, let’s take a look at the definition of ketchup. Searching google books gives the first result for Ketchup in English as The Young Cook’s Monitor (1683) which tells us “if you have no ketchup, then put in one anchovy” So, maybe there’s something to this idea that it’s like garum.
Dictionnaire des marchandises (1797)
This is a German to 11 other languages dictionary for commerce. Very interesting read, but it gives the translation of Ketchup as: “Schampignonsaft mit Salz und Gewuerzen” (mushroom juice with salt and spices).
The London Medical Dictionary (1809) offers the following definition
“Ketchup is prepared from mushrooms or walnuts, with the addition of salt, and generally some spice. These two fluids are infinitely diversified with the flavor of shalot, the warmth and pungency of cayenne pepper vinegar, the taste of anchovies, etc.; and sold in many forms with a great variety of names, according to the fancy of Mr. Burges and others. They are not so injurious if they do not tempt the appetite too far, and increased the load beyond the powers of the stomach to digest. Mushrooms we have added to the list, which, though in a slight degree nourishing, are chiefly taken for their flavor.”
“Ketchup. The juice of certain vegetables strongly salted and spiced, so as to be used as sauce; Or a simple sauce made without the natural juice as a substitute for true ketchup. The following are the principle varieties:
Cucumber, marine, mushroom, oyster, pontac, tomato, walnut.”
They have a definition for Indian Ketchup. It’s Soy Sauce.
By this point, I feel like I’ve established that prior to 1800, Ketchup is nothing like what we call Ketchup, and it seems the old Ketchups are descended from Garum.
How About a Recipe?
The New Art of Cookery … Being a Complete Guide to All Housekeepers, Etc (1792)
“Mushroom ketchup.
“Take a bushel of the large flaps of mushrooms gathered dry and bruise them with your hands; Put some at the bottom of an earthen pan, strew some salt over them, then mushrooms, then salt, till you have done; put in half an ounce of beaten cloves and mace, the same of allspice, and let them stand five or six days; Stir them up everyday; Then tie a paper over them, and bake them for four hours in a slow oven; when so done, strain them through a cloth to get all the liquor out, and let the liquor stand to settle; Then pour it clear from the settlings; To every gallon of liquor, add a quart of red wine, and if not salt enough, a little salt, a race of ginger cut small, half an ounce of cloves and Mace, and boil it till about 1/3 list reduced; Then strain it through a sieve into a pan; The next day pour it from the settlings, and bottle it for use; But mind to cork it tight.”
What changed?
Well, two things. In 1811 (that’s the first reference I find anyway), they started using tomatoes for Ketchup. Later, they really cut back the spices and added sugar. Now, modern ketchup is very popular (enough so that Malcolm Gladwell wrote a pretty long article on it) and it has a balance of flavors. Older Ketchups do not have a balance of flavors, as they are heavily spiced and don’t have any sugar.
Modern Tomato Ketchup
Here’s a recipe from allrecipes (first hit on a search for “tomato ketchup recipe”)
- 2 (28 ounce) cans peeled ground tomatoes
- ½ cup water, divided
- ⅔ cup white sugar
- ¾ cup distilled white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 ¾ teaspoons salt
- ⅛ teaspoon celery salt
- ⅛ teaspoon mustard powder
- ¼ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
- 1 whole clove
Old Tomato Ketchup
The American Home Cook Book – 1864
“Tomato ketchup – boil half a bushel of tomatoes until soft – force them through a fine sieve, and put a quart of vinegar, one pint of salt, 2 ounces of cloves, 2 ounces of allspice, 1 1/2 ounces of cayenne pepper, one tablespoon full of pepper, two heads of garlic skinned; mix together and boil three hours, then bottle with being strained.”
The method is more or less the same, and converting to the same amount as our modern recipe gives us:
- 2 (28 ounce) cans of tomato
- 1/2 cups vinegar
- 4 1/4 Tablespoons of salt
- 1 Tablespoons of Cloves
- 1 Tablespoons of allspice
- 3/4 teaspoons Cayenne Pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon Pepper
- 5 cloves of garlic
Notice the two biggest differences are no sugar (even the vinegar amounts are close) and LOTS more spices. Even comparing old style tomato Ketchup to the modern stuff is going to give a much less sweet sauce, never mind the Cayenne Pepper and other spices in very heavy amounts. Garum is going to be like that, only more so.
In short, yes, thickened garum and wine sauce is “like ketchup” only in a very vague sense.
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