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The Man Who Guards America's Ketchup
- sparkpeasy 7y agoIf you're seriously interested in the magic of Heinz Ketchup, this New Yorker longread by Malcolm Gladwell from 2004 remains the benchmark- https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/09/06/the-ketchup-conundrum https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/09/06/the-ketchup-co...
- dewey 7y agoOnly slightly related to that but if you enjoy Malcolm Gladwell's piece you may also be interested in this episode from his excellent Revisionist History podcast where he tracks down why the fries at McDonalds don't taste the same any more: http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/19-mcdonalds-broke-my-heart http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/19-mcdonalds-broke-my...
- sdrothrock 7y agoThank you for this link -- it was an absolutely revelatory read for me in terms of sales and marketing, and also as to why Heinz is as satisfying as it is.
- jonathanstrange 7y agoThat story reminds me, I once made my own ketchup. It's a lot of fun, but not very rewarding (see below). You'll find many different recipes on the net. I chose one of them that I considered most promising, assembled the definitely countless ingredients, then carefully peeled and boiled down the tomatoes, and so on. The whole process took me about two hours, maybe even longer. Before you add the vinegar, it tastes like a delicious Indian tomato sauce. The result after adding the vinegar tasted like the cheapest, generic no-name ketchup you could find. It wasn't particularly bad, just not nearly as good as Heinz. Whatever they put in their ketchup, it sure is some secret sauce.
- MichaelMoser123 7y agoIt is easy to make tomato sauce without any ketchup (like in spaghetti with tomato sauce); To me it tastes much better than ketchup, but I wouldn't know how to preserve it for a week or longer. I mean ketchup kills all the ingredients but it doesn't turn into a tasteless mess; that's quite an achievement.
- volent 7y agowhat
- alien1993 7y ago> It is easy to make tomato sauce without any ketchup What do you mean? Tomato sauce is not ketchup, it's a completely different thing. Is there people actually making tomato sauce with ketchup!?
- markdown 7y ago> Tomato sauce is not ketchup, it's a completely different thing. Really? I've always assumed that ketchup is just what Americans call tomato sauce.
- knodi 7y agoNo.
- SllX 7y agoTomato jam would be better description, though that’s also a whole other condiment which is apparently pretty popular in South Africa. We don’t typically serve our pasta with ketchup[1]. [1] The Japanese however, might. https://www.japanesecooking101.com/spaghetti-neapolitan/ https://www.japanesecooking101.com/spaghetti-neapolitan/ I’ve tasted variants of this. It isn’t for me, but I never cared for ketchup.
- 9nGQluzmnq3M 7y ago
- surge 7y agoIt kind of bothers me that in that picture of the farm the hills behind it look like a desert.
- maddyboo 7y agoWelcome to California!
- dllthomas 7y agoIt's dry grass - you see hills like that in many parts of California. Some of my wife's relatives visiting from Poland had the same interpretation you did.
- Maultasche 7y agoThat's the magic of irrigation. Farms can be located in dry areas, which is common in much of California, where it doesn't rain from May to October. I remember the first time I went to a place with green grass in summer and being amazed that such a thing was possible.
- amelius 7y agoKinda silly that we still can't make an objective measurement of taste, like we can for images, sound.
- TeMPOraL 7y agoBut we can. What we can't make is an objective measurement of whether something tastes good - much like we can't make a similar objective measurement for whether an image looks good, or a music piece sounds good.
- amelius 7y agoThe question in the article was about whether the taste of ketchup has changed over time. Now, can we measure the taste of something, record it, and compare it meaningfully to a new measurement? If there is a difference between both measurements, can we say if that difference is significant or not (i.e. would a human be able to tell the difference)?
- Cthulhu_ 7y agoOh but we can - chemical composition, acidity, caloric content, etcetera. But think of it this way; can you make an objective measurement about music or (visual) art? Can you encode someone's reaction to an image in a repeatable, digital form?
- JoeAltmaier 7y agoPerhaps because at root, its a subjective measure. What did you eat beforehand? What is your level of exhertion? Hydration? What do your genes do to the enzymes in your mouth? What did you grow up/get acclimated to already? Just look around the world, at the crazy things other cultures eat. Of course taste is subjective! Or genetic; either way, its gonna be hard to be objective in a meaningful way.
- amelius 7y agoSee: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20866663 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20866663
- anderskev 7y agoI spent a few years working as a cook, from crappy catering companies all the way up to a michelin-starred restaurant. At every level, it was a known "rule" that one thing you should never attempt to make in house was...ketchup.
- moate 7y agoI had a friend that worked for Jean-George in new york and brought their steak sauce with him to the restaurant we were working at. I swear to god, we had to order all these specialty fucking ingredients and dump a ton of labor into this one condiment and then people would just ask for A1 (or Ketchup). Some things just aren't worth the effort.
- notfromhere 7y agofor a little extra kick, i like the ones that include a little cayenne pepper
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- JoeAltmaier 7y agoUsed to be made of oysters and walnuts. If we didn't allow it to change with public tastes, we'd still be putting that on our hamburgers?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- elbrian 7y agoHuntz is a vastly superior product, for a similar (or cheaper) price. Give it a shot! edit: I made the switch a couple years back, when Huntz switched back to sugar (from corn syrup) and haven't looked back. AFAIK, Heinz still uses the high fructose rubbish.
- woodandsteel 7y agoIn the U.S. salsa has partly replaced katchup as a tomato condiment. I use it myself because I have to watch my weight and sugar intake.
- woodandsteel 7y agooops, make that "ketchup"