# Are You A Ketchup Freak? Tell us what you do with Ketchup.



## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

First a little quiz:

1) Do you put ketchup on your potatoes? 
You are into ketchup.

2) Do you put ketchup on your eggs? 
You are really into ketchup.

3) Have you ever eaten ketchup toast? 
You are a ketchup nut.

4) Have you ever squeezed ketchup straight from the bottle into your mouth? 
You are a ketchup freak!

So, ketchup freaks, nuts, and others, tell us what you put ketchup on?

By the way, i am a Ketchup Freak and I really don't care for tomatoes. I once ate spaghetti noodles and ketchup because I was hungry, had no spaghetti sauce, and the stores were all closed. I must say that was one time that ketchup was not the solution.


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## Giordano (Aug 10, 2014)

Ketchup could be banned, and I wouldn't bat an eyelid.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Definitely like ketchup on potato stuff like chips (fries), hash browns and waffles. Also great on a sausage and onion baguette. The thought of it on eggs or toast doesn't appeal at all, though.


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

I can't abide the smell of ketchup and I will leave a cafe if there is a smell of it inside. 

My kids used to have to eat it outside (or in the kitchen with the window open and the door closed)

It might explain why I'm a hermit


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

It seems to be very much an Anglo-American, Central-European and quasi-Italian preference; ketchup was never a really big thing here ... it is used for hotdogs and Italian cuisine, and that´s it. Don´t recall buying it.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Likewise, we have not had a bottle in the house for years.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I am 'into ketchup'. I love it on potatoes or bacon and sometimes on veggies. I have also found it good to cook with, if I don't have tinned chopped tomatoes or tomato puree in the house.
No way would I use it on eggs or on toast, or squirt it straight into my mouth. 
That's *gross! * :lol:


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## Guest (Jan 20, 2015)

Florestan said:


> i am a Ketchup Freak


You may be an endangered species...

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...alling-has-britain-finally-come-to-its-senses
_*
"sales of tomato sauce are down by 6%"*_


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## Bruce (Jan 2, 2013)

I'm not into ketsup toast, or squirting it undiluted into my mouth, but I do enjoy it on potatoes (baked) and eggs, especially when a little tabasco sauce is added. I also add it to salads as a dressing, but only as an addition to spaghetti sauce (since I don't handle vegetable oils all that well, which eliminates the most common salad dressings). 

But especially catsup is good on hamburgers. And French fries, though that probably can be subsumed under the category of potatoes. In fact, I consider French fries as a mere platform for ketchup.


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Thank goodness for ketchup, without which my five year old would barely eat anything! Though I don't know how I managed to eat it on scrambled eggs when I was that age. Eww!


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Call me an idiot, but I find ketchup or mustard covers up the taste of whatever I'm eating.

I prefer eating my food unadorned, thank you.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I like it. Even as a child, I loved hamburgers with everything, and that included lots of mustard, ketchup and relish.

I never have any in the house. I don't use it, except in restaurants. I agree with hpowders: I want to taste the food I'm eating. If it needs to be flavoured or disguised, then it's likely not very good to start with. Perhaps that is why I use it in restaurants? 

One thing that fascinates me about ketchup is that it is an Indonesian sauce, ketjap or kecap. It is definitely worth exploring the origins and world of ketchup. It doesn't all taste like the stuff you grew up with.


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## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

Like it a little. Have a bottle in the house but it lasts a long time here. Prefer mayonaise with fries (cue scene from some Tarrantino-film) or hardboiled eggs. Preferably the Belgium variety with some lemon in it.


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

I don't put ketchup on many things (not on fries, not on burgers, although I won't take it off if that's how it comes).

I do like it in recipes, such as the one below, when I make your own. It doesn't have to be made from scratch with fresh tomatoes either. Just tomato paste, Worcestershire, brown sugar and a few other things will do.

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/7878-stir-fried-chicken-with-ketchup


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

hpowders said:


> Call me an idiot, but I find ketchup or mustard covers up the taste of whatever I'm eating.


In the case of the British food of a generation ago, I think that was rather the point! Too bad I wasn't allowed to tip ketchup all over liver and onions (yuk) or spam, or butterscotch Angel Delight.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Well said, Figleaf! Ketchup was just about the only way to make overboiled cabbage palatable. But we weren't allowed to use ketchup on our 'seaweed' in school dinners.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Bruce said:


> I'm not into ketsup toast, or squirting it undiluted into my mouth, but I do enjoy it on potatoes (baked) and eggs, especially when a little tabasco sauce is added. I also add it to salads as a dressing, but only as an addition to spaghetti sauce (since I don't handle vegetable oils all that well, which eliminates the most common salad dressings).
> 
> But especially catsup is good on hamburgers. And French fries, though that probably can be subsumed under the category of potatoes. In fact, I consider French fries as a mere platform for ketchup.


In Holland and Belgium, French fries are a platform for Mayonnaise 

There is one hard-core splinter sect in Chicago re: Hamburgers, though... 
*"We don't need no ketchup on our hamburgers; we've got real tomatoes for that!"*


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Just letting you know I am a man of my word. I threw out my bottle of Heinz ketchup.

Alas, this wasn't easy. That foul-smelling bottle was my only remaining tie to the year 1985.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Figleaf said:


> In the case of the British food of a generation ago, I think that was rather the point! Too bad I wasn't allowed to tip ketchup all over liver and onions (yuk) or spam, or butterscotch Angel Delight.


Okay. Then ketchup is fine for kids. But as adults who are free to choose the tastes we desire, I don't see the point of covering them up with overpowering condiments.

A few months ago, I had an epiphany. I eat turkey dinner every week in a restaurant and I always mix the turkey with cranberry sauce and it hit me, I'm only tasting the cranberry sauce! So I eat them separately now.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

I don't use ketchup that much at all. For steak, I prefer mustard or savory sauce, for hot chips, I prefer salt or plain or gravy. I don't normally use ketchup on anything much, but if nothing else is available, I enjoy ketchup.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I don't think it has a very nice taste actually. I tend to avoid it and look for better condiments to add to my food.


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

Being diabetic, I have to be very careful which ketchup brand I buy. Most are made with high fructose syrup and a few are produced without any added sweeteners, keeping just the natural sweetness of the ingredients themselves. 

Ketchup is a staple on our dining table - I use it sparingly on eggs, hashbrowns, potatoes, etc so as to not completely hide the natural flavour of the food being seasoned. I also use it when making meatloaf at home. 

My wife always thought I was totally weird for putting ketchup on eggs ... that is until we were at the breakfast table with Frederik Magle at his home in 2010. We made scrambled eggs for the four of us, and to her surprise, Frederik reached for the ketchup bottle before I had a chance. 

She no longer things I am weird ... just all Danes, now :lol:


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I use either of these, which are reasonably priced and do not have high fructose corn syrup, but cane sugar:


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

brotagonist said:


> I don't use it, except in restaurants.


with respect, sir ... if you *need* to add it to your food to disguise it (or to give it some taste), perhaps you need to find a different restaurant?


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Or a different wife????


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I just discovered a new ketchup treat: Ketchup sandwiches using Panera tomato basil bread. Delicious!


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

Ketchup tends to be too sweet for me. I prefer mustard. I'm also a hot sauce nut. Every Christmas my mom gets me a gallon of Tobasco (Habanero Tobasco, it's more flavorful than regular), and it's gone by mid February-early March.

I enjoy ketchup on Hamburgers and hotdogs but that's about it. I don't even dip my fries (or chips, for you commie non-Americans  ) in ketchup unless there's nothing else around.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

violadude said:


> Ketchup tends to be too sweet for me. I prefer mustard. I'm also a hot sauce nut. Every Christmas my mom gets me a gallon of Tobasco (Habanero Tobasco, it's more flavorful than regular), and it's gone by mid February-early March.
> 
> I enjoy ketchup on Hamburgers and hotdogs but that's about it. I don't even dip my fries (or chips, for you commie non-Americans  ) in ketchup unless there's nothing else around.


I call them "chips" and even say "tomato sauce" to "ketchup." Things that can be called "tomato sauce" usually go by more specific names for me such as "Napoli sauce" or any other name of a tomato based sauce. I _love_ Tabasco habanero sauce (nb Tabasco is a trademarked name) and I could eat it with anything.


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## pianississimo (Nov 24, 2014)

*The greatest toasted sandwich in the world - the vampire sandwich (c) .*

Take two slices of thick white bread and butter one side of each
Take grated cheese and pile onto the unbuttered side of one
make a well in the middle and fill with tomato ketchup
place the other slice on top, butter side up.
cook in a sandwich toaster - it has to be one of those which seals the edges or it won't work.

Then eat.
The cheese will be melted and the sauce will be hot. it will dribble down your chin and make you look like a creature of the night, hence the name.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

pianississimo said:


> *
> make a well in the middle and fill with tomato ketchup
> *


*
I love it!

I have wondered if there was a way to make ketchup thick enough to be like finger food, so that you could load up a sandwich or burger and not have it squirt out the back when you bite in. So far the only solution is that you have to layer on ketchup before each bite or dip the burger in a pool of ketchup before each bite.*


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Florestan said:


> I love it!
> 
> I have wondered if there was a way to make ketchup thick enough to be like finger food, so that you could load up a sandwich or burger and not have it squirt out the back when you bite in. So far the only solution is that you have to layer on ketchup before each bite or dip the burger in a pool of ketchup before each bite.


If you added gelatine or a vegetarian equivalent to ketchup, it would be firm enough to slice and eat as finger food (eww). I expect Heston Blumenthal has a recipe for it somewhere! (But don't tell my five year old. She would never eat anything else!)


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Figleaf said:


> If you added gelatine or a vegetarian equivalent to ketchup, it would be firm enough to slice and eat as finger food (eww). I expect Heston Blumenthal has a recipe for it somewhere! (But don't tell my five year old. She would never eat anything else!)


Ummmmmm! Ketchup Jello! I like it, just make it thicker for finger food.


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

At most I am into ketchup. It has definitely fallen out of favor in my diet ever since I turned 15...

As a child I used to put ketchup in white rice. Now, the thought of which is making me gag a little


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## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

I only eat ketchup in the restaurant. My wife screams at me if I try to eat it at home. She can't scream at me in the restaurant.


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## pianississimo (Nov 24, 2014)

Florestan said:


> I love it!
> 
> I have wondered if there was a way to make ketchup thick enough to be like finger food, so that you could load up a sandwich or burger and not have it squirt out the back when you bite in. So far the only solution is that you have to layer on ketchup before each bite or dip the burger in a pool of ketchup before each bite.


Unfortunately if you put ketchup inside a more solid structure, like a sandwich for example, it will squirt out when pressure is applied. That's physics for you!
If the ketchup is on the outside then it's less problematic. It's not all that runny and will cling happily to French fries or breadcrumbed items. 
I'm hungry now! 

Just had an idea. Ketchup Popsicles! Great for summer and no squirting! Just freeze in a shot glass with a wee bit of vodka and a stick stuck in it. 
Bloody Mary on a stick! I should patent that


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Thanks to this thread, we had some ketchup on our sauté potatoes with our salmon tonight - very fortifying, as we were going out to a Scottish dance. Thanks, Ketchup - you kept us heuching! :tiphat:


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

I can't say I'm much of a ketchup freak. I really only have it with hamburgers and French fries. I can't think of anything else I'd want it on -_-


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Speaking of how ketchup is not all that runny, don't you just love the extra thick part in the top of the new bottle when you first open it? I usually scrape it out with a knife and eat it separate as it is delicious. Wish they made the whole thing that way. I think it is just more concentrated.

My ketchup freakiness goes way back. When I was a kid, maybe about 10 years old, my family bought me a giant restaurant-sized can of ketchup. Must have been 1.5 quarts or so. I remember watching my mother pour it into smaller containers.


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## geralmar (Feb 15, 2013)

Does anyone here eat "catsup"?


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

My grandpa used to call it Cat Soup. I won't say what he called mustard but it started with mouse. He was a character.


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## phlrdfd (Jan 18, 2015)

In some areas, including mine, ketchup is pretty standard on both a burger and fries. I like it on both. I'll put it on breakfast potatoes too, but not on eggs.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Here's a ketchup variant I like - it tastes a little sweet and sour and goes really well with breaded chicken.


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

The only time I eat ketchup is when I eat hot dog and that is because one is supposed to.


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## pianississimo (Nov 24, 2014)

Sloe said:


> The only time I eat ketchup is when I eat hot dog and that is because one is supposed to.


anything to take away the taste of the hot dog. Worst food ever invented!


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## sabrina (Apr 26, 2011)

I only like some organic ketchup I buy from Whole Foods. Other than that I hate it because I don't like the sweet taste form sugar or much worse, fructose syrup. I rarely use it on pizza, or on hotdogs. But I eat maybe one hot dog/year, and then I mix ketchup with mustard. I love, love good tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato juice, but not ketchup


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

I don't put on the French Fries or eggs, but I smear it on the wifey!


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## Dustin (Mar 30, 2012)

No, I hate ketchup. Which is strange because I love pretty much anything else made from tomatoes, especially salsa. Ketchup just has a strange super sweet flavor that doesn't appeal to me.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

sabrina said:


> I only like some organic ketchup I buy from Whole Foods.


 You can also get the organic Trader Joe's ketchup. It is pretty much the same as Whole Food's 365 brand. Great price too for organic.


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## Guest (Feb 8, 2015)

I do things with ketchup that require an appropriately-marked "NSFW" thread to discuss.


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## MoonlightSonata (Mar 29, 2014)

I like ketchup very much. I will (but don't always!) put it on just about anything, within reason.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Dustin said:


> Ketchup just has a strange super sweet flavor ...


That's why I sometimes call it red sugar.


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## spokanedaniel (Dec 23, 2014)

geralmar said:


> Does anyone here eat "catsup"?


That, of course, is the correct spelling. I use catsup and mustard on fried potatoes, fried fish, and tofu. I also use it on bean patties. However, catsup has a LOT of sugar in it, and so I don't use a lot of it, since I regard excessive sugar consumption as a bad idea. (I also eat fried foods only on rare occasions. So a bottle of catsup lasts me a while.)

Oh, one other use for catsup: Because it's thicker than tomato sauce, sometimes when I make a pizza from scratch I'll spread the tomato sauce to within about a half an inch of the edge, and then put catsup out to the edge, so that the sauce does not dribble off the edge and onto the baking sheet.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

spokanedaniel said:


> Oh, one other use for catsup: Because it's thicker than tomato sauce, sometimes when I make a pizza from scratch I'll spread the tomato sauce to within about a half an inch of the edge, and then put catsup out to the edge, so that the sauce does not dribble off the edge and onto the baking sheet.


Ummmmmmm! Baked catsup is wonderful!


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## georgedelorean (Aug 18, 2017)

Taters, eggs, burgers, hot dogs are pretty much about it. However if fry sauce is available, I'll definitely take that first.


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

Giordano said:


> Ketchup could be banned, and I wouldn't bat an eyelid.


Really! Ketchup is a very versatile food product. base for BBQ sauce. and would not surprise me if it is used in many dishes in france and other countries. and Heinz is the best. one can taste the differance between the brands. My daughter will not even eat at a place if it does not have Heinz ketchup. now if one wants a quick BBQ sauce.....Ketchup(heinz) and -----------------> grape jelly! yes!


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

spokanedaniel said:


> That, of course, is the correct spelling. I use catsup and mustard on fried potatoes, fried fish, and tofu. I also use it on bean patties. However, catsup has a LOT of sugar in it, and so I don't use a lot of it, since I regard excessive sugar consumption as a bad idea. (I also eat fried foods only on rare occasions. So a bottle of catsup lasts me a while.)
> 
> Oh, one other use for catsup: Because it's thicker than tomato sauce, sometimes when I make a pizza from scratch I'll spread the tomato sauce to within about a half an inch of the edge, and then put catsup out to the edge, so that the sauce does not dribble off the edge and onto the baking sheet.


BUT catsup and ketchup are not the same. Ketchup is made with a diffent recipe and is copyrighted by Heinz. now just let me say My Wife-her Sister-Brother-Dad all worked at the Heinz factory in Pittsburgh 3 retired from the plant.


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

starthrower said:


> I don't put on the French Fries or eggs, but I smear it on the wifey!


OMG this reminds me of a dinner with employees and friends and OLD BAY:lol:


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

Figleaf said:


> If you added gelatine or a vegetarian equivalent to ketchup, it would be firm enough to slice and eat as finger food (eww). I expect Heston Blumenthal has a recipe for it somewhere! (But don't tell my five year old. She would never eat anything else!)


it can happen!


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

geralmar said:


> I only eat ketchup in the restaurant. My wife screams at me if I try to eat it at home. She can't scream at me in the restaurant.


well working on the line one night a Filet Mignon order come in and cooked Med. sent it out and the server(future 1st wife) comes back and said "that person wants Ketchup for his Filet!" I screamed!


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