I had another thought about tomato sauce this weekend. Isn't it the British word for what North Americans call ketchup? Could someone please confirm or deny this? ~ Bean

Here's a question from me and an answer from Helen from some time back.

When I was a lot younger, in the UK one served up tomato sauce with one’s fish and chips. On the other side of the Atlantic something called “ketchup” (occasionally for some mysterious reason spelled: “catsup”) was applied to hotdogs. Now, in the UK, one is also liable to hear the word ketchup used rather than tomato sauce.
I don’t like tomato sauce so cannot be sure whether it is the same as ketchup or something different, but it is clear why tomato sauce is so called. Can anyone please enlighten me as to where the word ketchup came from, and the even more mysterious catsup?

dxb

what ever the sourse of the word, catsup/ketchup has been an American condiment for a very long time.. colonial cookbooks have recipts.(recipes) for it, and the basics haven't changed.. it was originally chunkier, more like a chutney, made from tomatoes, spice, vinegar and sweetner.(molasses originaly) over time, it got smoother and sweeter.. until it is the homogonized sweet, mildy spicey, tomato basic condiment we know today.

remember the whaling industry was growing up pre-revolution, and american sailers were going round the world in search of whales.. NYC had the first customs house of US government, Sag Harbor, New Bedford, Nantucket, and all the other whaling towns of New England/Long Island followed fast behind.. Whaling ships brought in whale oil and other exotics from many foriegn ports and the new goverment was quick to impose duty tax! but there was no tax on ideas.. and condiments like ketchup came in free!

to my thinking tomato sause is mild, (maybe salt, and little basil) pureed tomatoes.. reduced slightly to thicken. it is the basis of other sauses.. red (pasta sause), cocktail sause for sea food, tomato soup, etc. i almost never use it as it comes from the can, but only use it as an ingredient in something else.