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<< So will someone explain to me the difference between ketchup and catsup?? >>
spelling? >>
Is that it?!?! >>
As far as I know it is, they taste the same and have the same ingredients....
Edit: More info:
Catsup
A friend of mine recently asked me where the word "catsup" came from, and, although I knew that I'd known the answer at one time, my mind, as usual, went utterly blank. I then compounded my predicament by protesting, "But I used to know! I even wrote a column about it!" Shaking his head sadly, and muttering something along the lines of "It's really sad when the old mind goes," my friend wandered off. Here, therefore, to prove that I am not yet an utter feeb, is the original column from several years ago.
Dear Evan: I wrote an essay for my English class recently in which I mentioned "french fries and ketchup." My teacher changed the spelling to "catsup." I went home and looked in the refrigerator and the bottle says "ketchup." My dictionary lists both as acceptable, but which is more correct?
Neither spelling, "catsup" or "ketchup", is more correct than the other. The only difference I know of is that people who strive too hard for correctness invariably seem to prefer "catsup." Perhaps they imagine that there is some connection with "cat's supper," but anyone who has dealt with cats wouldn't dream of trying to feed them ketchup.
Human beings, on the other hand, love catsup. Americans eat it, according to a recent article in Vogue, at the rate of three bottles per person per year. But the original ketchup bore little resemblance to what might be called our national sauce. The words "ketchup" and "catsup" both come from the Malay word "kechap," from the Chinese word "ketsiap," a sauce made from fermented fish and brine. Pickled fish sauce may not sound all that appealing on french fries, but the Malay word "kechap" itself really only meant "taste." After the word migrated into English in the 17th century (as "catchup," still an accepted spelling), it was applied to a variety of sauces and condiments. It was only with the importation of the tomato to Europe from its native habitat in South America that what we now know as ketchup was born. Modern ketchup is made of tomato sauce, vinegar, sugar and spices, and not a speck, thank heavens, of pickled fish.
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