I'll Have Fries With That

The most American of condiments (ketchup) is originally from China. The earliest recipe (544 A.D.) for ketchup instructs the maker to "take the intestines,stomach,and bladder of the yellow fish,shark and mullet and wash them well. Mix them with a moderate amount of salt and place them in a jar. Seal tightly and incubate in sun. It will be ready in twenty days in the summer,fifty days in spring or fall and a hundred days in winter." In the 16th century British traders developed a taste for the sauce and attempted to re-create it using a variety of ingredients. It was close to 200 years before anyone considered adding a tomato,of course tomatoes were still thought to be poisonous by many folks until the early 1800's.