No more blue fries

[Mezzaluna]

Did you ever try Heinz's strange fries? Looks like it was a bad marketing decision, now corrected.

[Suzanne]

Last Sunday I was at a barbecue at a friend's house. One of the other guests brought a squeeze bottle of green ketchup. I thought, Oh boy, finally my chance to check out this stuff! But she had not actually opened it, as in removed the safety seal. I could not bring myself to do it either. Edie, who brought it, said, "it will be like a fruitcake, given from friend to friend."

[ChefHogan]

I too was at a BBQ and my friend said, here try this new Banana Catsup, eeek! He offered me the bottle to take home to, just like the fruitcake... rotfl

If I want Catsup, please do not put Bananas in it!

Hogan

[chefseason]

I have a question I was wondering if anybody could answer for me. When catering off site is there any possible way to keep fried food crisp for more than a couple of minutes. It is not possible to cook on site. Need suggestions.

[gonefishin]

I've got NO idea what you guys and gals are talking about! But after reading the posts in this thread...I'm perfectly fine with that

happy eating!
dan

[Mezzaluna]

Chef Seasons, I'd say that one of the Professional forums (catering, for example) would be a better place to ask about frying off-site.

I was a bit jostled to see this oooooooold thread resurrected! All these products we were scoffing at are now gone, I think.

[KYHeirloomer]

Isn't it amazing how what one is used to is the "right" way, and other ways are strange.

In point of fact, tomatoes are a Johnny come lately when it comes to ketchup. Originally, ketchup was made with oysters, mushrooms, or walnuts. Tomato ketchup (or catsup, as we spell it) didn't catch on until after the War Between the States.

Mushroom ketchup is still popular in Great Britain, and is occasionally seen here in specialty stores.

[Mezzaluna]

Funny you should mention that. I have a late 19th century cookbook that has a recipe for mushroom ketchup.

[siduri]

Originally Posted by Mezzaluna

Funny you should mention that. I have a late 19th century cookbook that has a recipe for mushroom ketchup.

Indeed, mushroom ketchup was the original, i believe, or one of the originals. Ketchup is, if i'm not mistaken, an indonesian or southeast asian invention - not sure exactly, but i read once it was called ketjoop, clearly dutch spelling, back in the 1700s. would make sense, since they had colonies there.
and when did the tomato get to those parts of the world??? It took some time to be used in europe, after all, after being discovered in america by the europeans.
My guess is that ketchup was originally a sweet/sour sauce based on vegetables, and possibly on different ones. mushroom ketchup i've heard of and it's old, but maybe there were others too.
I make ketchup at home, not to can it, though i suppose i could, just to make then and there when i have hamburgers or stuff like that. Now i can't eat even the best of the store bought stuff.
I just boil up a can of tomatoes or puree, a clove or two of garlic, basil leaves, two or three spoons of dark brown sugar, two or three spoons of vinegar (balsamic usually), salt, pepper, a little powdered mustard if i feel like, maybe thyme and finally a little pinch pf clove or allspice (essential). I boil it for ten minutes, and then puree. can also add onion, other vegs. as you like. Might try it to make it with some other vegetable, now that you guys mention it.
Try it though, it takes about as much time as it does to prepare the hamburgers.

[allie]

My kids always begged for that strangely colored ketchup. I refused to buy it. That stuff just looks wrong! Thankfully, they never saw the blue fries! lol

[KYHeirloomer]

>It took some time to be used in europe, after all, after being discovered in america by the europeans.<

Actually, this is more myth than fact.

Tomatoes were "discovered" by the Spaniards, who brought them to Europe. They were an immediate hit in Spain, and spread rapidly to France, Italy and other locales.

It was only in the English-speaking world that they were held in disdain. Because tomatoes are part of the nightshade family they were thought to be poisonous, and only grown as ornamentals in the British Isles until well into the 19th century.

In the British North American colonies this attitude was more common in the northern locales, such as New England. In Virginia, tomatoes were being grown as a food crop previous to 1780; perhaps a whole lot sooner. In 1781, however, at the request of the French Consul, Thomas Jefferson prepared a treatise "On The Current State of Virginia," in which he discusses tomatoes as a food crop. By the middle of that decade they were being served on up-scale tables as far away as the Kentucky frontier.

At least as early as 1823 it was being spelled "catsup" in America. At least such was the spelling used by Mary Randolph in "The Virginia Housewife." Given her background as a plantation manager and inn keeper, it is likely that spelling was used for at least the previous 25 years.

Here, for what it's worth, is her recipe for Oyster Catsup

"Get fine fresh oysters, wash them in their own liquor, put them in a marble mortar with salt, pounded mace, and cayenne pepper, in the proportions of one ounce salt, dtwo drachms mace, and one of cayenne to each point of oysters; pound them together, and add a pint of white wine to each pint; boil it some minutes, and rub it through a sieve; boil it again, skim it, and when cold, bottle, cork, and seal it. This composition gives a fine flavore to white sauces, and if a glass of brandy be added, it will keep good for a considerable time."

In the same volume she has a recipe for walnut catsup, one for walnut catsup, and this one for

"Tomato Catsup

Gather a peck of tomatos, pick out the stems, and wash them; put them on the fire without water, sprinkle on a few spoonsful of salt, let them boil steadily an hour, stirring them fre4quently; strain them through a colander, and then through a sieve; put the liquid on the fire with half a pint of chopped onions, half a quarter of an ounce of mace broke into small pieces; and if not sufficiently salt, add a little more---one table-spoonful of whole black peppers; boil all together until just enough to fill two bottles; cork it tight. Make it in August, in dry weather."

Other tomato recipes in that book include Tomato Maralade; Tomato Sweet Marmalade; and Tomato Soy. There also are two others of note:
"To Scollop Tomatos," and "To Stew Tomatos."

Menus from Bill Whitiker's Race Day Breakfasts served in the mid-1780s list stewed tomatoes, and that last is likely the same recipe.

Well, this is probably a lot more than anyone wants to know on the subject, so I'll shut up.