00:00The goop we love, but surprisingly goes by two different names.
00:04So have you always wondered, is it ketchup or catsup?
00:07The truth is, both ketchup and catsup come from the same word.
00:11Back in the 17th century, British traders stumbled upon a sauce in Southeast Asia called KTCAP, or something close to that.
00:18It was a Chinese fermented fish sauce.
00:21Gross!
00:21Well, the British brought that delicacy back to Europe, but couldn't quite recreate the original.
00:26So over time, they kind of winged it.
00:28Sometimes with mushrooms, sometimes with walnuts, but the version that stuck was with tomatoes.
00:35By the 1800s, that sweet, tangy sauce was being described as both catsup and ketchup.
00:40But the tipping point came in 1876, when the Heinz Company went all in on the word ketchup to stand out on the store shelves.
00:48Well, Heinz won the branding war, and catsup slowly faded into retro diner obscurity.
00:54The Always Wondered Podcast.
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