One of the world’s oldest condiments - Dan Kwartler

Trace the history of ketchup, from the condiment’s origins in 3rd century China to becoming a staple of American cuisine.

--

In the mid-18th century, England was crazy for ketchup. The sauce was a staple, but this ketchup wasn’t the ubiquitous red goop you’re familiar with today. In fact, it was a sweet and savory brown sauce that didn’t even have tomatoes in it. So where did this early ketchup come from, and how did it become the dip we know and love? Dan Kwartler traces the condiment's history.

Lesson by Dan Kwartler, directed by Denys Spolitak.

Support Our Non-Profit Mission
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------

Connect With Us
----------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------

Keep Learning
----------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------

Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Po Foon Kwong, Boffin, Jesse Jurman, Scott Markley, Elija Peterson, Ovidiu Mrd, paul g mohney, Steven Razey, Nathan Giusti, Helen Lee, Anthony Benedict, Karthik Balsubramanian, Annastasshia Ames, Amy Lopez, Vinh-Thuy Nguyen, Liz Candee, Ugur Doga Sezgin, Karmi Nguyen, John C. Vesey, Yelena Baykova, Nick Johnson, Carlos H. Costa, Jennifer Kurkoski, Ryan B Harvey, Akinola Emmanuel, Jose Arcadio Valdes Franco, Sebastiaan Vleugels, Karl Laius, JY Kang, Abhishek Goel, Heidi Stolt, Nicole Sund, Karlee Finch, Mario Mejia, Denise A Pitts, Doug Henry, Keven Webb, Mihai Sandu, Deepak Iyer, Javid Gozalov, Kyanta Yap, Rebecca Reineke, William Biersdorf, Patricia Alves Panagides, Yvette Mocete, Cyrus Garay, Samuel Barbas, LadyGeek, Marin Kovachev and Penelope Misquitta.

[wtingfri]

That was 100x more interesting than I thought it would be. History is so cool.

[nd]

Interesting! This is real. I found 'ketchup' in the Southeast Asian dictionary. Soy sauce is called "kécap" in Indonesian and "kicap" in Malay. both from old Chinese, meaning fish sause😃

[seyaglas]

I feel the most important point is missing from the historical explanation and that is food preservation, which is roughly stated with the chinese background here. See the main food issue for most of human history wasn't flavor but longevity. Salt brinning and fermentation were the go-to methods. the garum (not sure about the spelling) was a long lasting sauce. That was the main reason for it's success. When occidentals started experimenting with ketchups made from other ingredients than fish, their primary concern was to create a different flavor without sacrificing the main attribute of the sauce: longevity, hence the choices of ingredients chosen (shellfish, mushrooms, onions and such). Tomato ketchup used to be one of the least appreciated version of the sauce, because it used to rot way faster than the others. Heinz corrected that issue by reducing the tomato sauce with the emerging sugar aboundance in America and replacing most water content with vinegar, finally fixing the problem of longevity.
That is why to this day it says tomato ketchup, and not just ketchup.

[Goldslate]

I love to see Tedx animations evolve... But the older ones are comfort.

[Moon-liki]

I once saw a guy at school eating banana with ketchup, it deeply traumatized me and still haunt my dreams to this day

[eshep]

That will be the most impactful 5 minutes of my day.

[Oratte]

From old china to brazilian pizza. What a rich history

[rl]

4:29

“We like to have fun here.”
-The Ted-Ed animators

[beeauralife]

First hypnotized by the animation. Then watched again to listened to the story. Kudos! animation and sound team🔥just love it

[PlutoDarknight]

Asian salt bae, tomato twerking and then the bottle and the hot dog, TedEd must have had a field day with this

[Sunflowersarepretty]

Ketchup and mayonnaise are my favorite condiments and they go so well together ❤

[CalebCalixFernandez]

Since sodium benzoate is still used today as a food preservative, I'm inclined to believe that the amounts of it used back in the day to preserve food products were way higher than the amounts used today.

[darriusdias]

Henry "Hotline Bling" Heinz (4:10) 👌

[raibee]

Love how Tedx are keeping up with the times through this animation style, but the other less modern styles were more engaging for me.

Tangent aside, I'd also like to share how during WW2, the Philippines had produced ketchup out of bananas. Its inventor was Maria Orosa, who was from the University of the Philippines. She sought to maximize local alternatives to imported produce.

[soniafabian]

It came back in full circle after María Orosa invented the banana ketchup.

[johnnguyen]

I gave literal standing ovation/LOL at 59sec! OMG, this whole vid's animation is SLAYING it!!

[awesomehpt]

Personally I’m not one for ketchup. For me it doesn’t cut the mustard. I don’t relish the opportunity to have when offered. There’s no way you can butter me up with it. I don’t make a big dill out of it.

[davea]

When ketchup has an argument with mustard, it gets very saucy. 😜

[SnehaSharma-nbtj]

*The sassy twerking of tomato is phenomenal!* 3:36

[aleksandarvil]

1:00 **Salt Bae** reference PRICELESS 😂😂😂