Did You Know – Ketchup

Did you know Ketchup was once used as a medicine?

In 1834, Dr. John Cooke Bennet added tomatoes to his concoction which was made with fish or mushrooms. The addition of the tomatoes added vitamins and antioxidants to the sauce.

He claimed his recipe could cure Diarrhea, Indigestion, Jaundice and Rheumatism. He had his sauce made into an extract of tomato pills and had them sold by Archibald Miles, a pill salesman.

Once the pills hit the market, there were many copycat tomato based pills being sold. Some of these copycat pills had false claims and caused the Ketchup medicine empire to collapse in 1850.

Amazon still sells the Mushroom Ketchup today!

Image: http://www.Amazon.com

Source: http://www.Ripleys.com

http://www.InDianesKitchen.com

Categories: Did You Know

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47 Comments »

  1. ๐Ÿ’œ A paraphrasing of a joke spoken by the performer Urma Thurman in the Quentin Tarantino movie ๐ŸŽฌ ‘Pulp Fiction’

    “What did Mommy Tomato ๐Ÿ… say to Baby ๐Ÿ‘ถ๐Ÿฟ Tomatoes dragging their heels ๐Ÿ‘  ๐Ÿค” ?”

    “KETCHUP!!!”

    … ๐Ÿ’›๐Ÿ’š๐Ÿ’™…

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  2. This was fascinating and hilarious. I must confess I’m tempted to order some from Amazon. If I do I’ll be sure to let you know how it is. I think YOU should definitely order some and make something delicious with it and then share your recipe! ๐Ÿ™‚

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      • If you had a taste straight from the bottle, I am sure you would think it was vile. But it adds a punchy earthy flavour to dishes. I think I prefer it to soaking dried porcini mushrooms, which are a little bit pongy. I think perhaps the word “ketchup” is a tad misleading though. It is much more watery than for example bottled tomato ketchup. It is much more like a thick stock or even an au jus.

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      • Yes, we learn something new every week and I was just reading something the other day about our fast food and other food items that people from other countries don’t “get” – they mentioned SPAM for one – we discussed SPAM. Your husband likes it – I like it. I don’t buy it now as I just eat chicken and fish, but I thought it was tasty. I always ate ketchup on my fries and if we had hamburgers and fries in the car, after McDonald’s and Burger King stopped having the styrofoam hamburger containers, I said “no more ketchup in the car” then I got the Regal with its burgundy velour seats and said “no more salt in the car” … fries are good plain, you adapt. ๐Ÿ™‚

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