BITS ‘N’ PIECES

Narrated by Abdullah (R.A)

Allah’s Apostle (S.A.W) said, “Do not wish to be like anybody except in two cases: The case of a man whom Allah has given wealth and he spends it in the right way, and that of a man whom Allah has given religious wisdom (i.e., Qur’an and Sunna) and he gives his verdicts according to it and teaches it.” (to others i.e., religious knowledge of Qur’an and Sunna (Prophet’s Traditions)).”

Sahih Bukhari, Volume 9, Book 92, Number 419

DID YOU KNOW?

Ketchup was once sold as a medicine

You may know ketchup as that sweet and sour condiment that goes well with your fast food, but the people of the nineteenth century had other uses in mind for this tangy sauce.

While it’s hard to tell exactly when ketchup first appeared on the global culinary map, historians believe that its origin can be traced back to China where it basically appeared in the form of a fish sauce. Mushroom variations were being prepared in the United Kingdom and United States in the 1700s, with the recipe evolving over time.

Many variations of ketchup were being created by the 1800s. It was in 1812 when an American named James Mease finally came up with a version of tomato-based ketchup. Eventually, in the 1870s, Henry Heinz created what is known as tomato ketchup today, using ripe tomatoes, distilled vinegar, brown sugar, salt, and spices to make the sauce.

Before it became a dining table staple though, ketchup was being sold as a medicine. Ohio physician Dr. John Cook Bennett saw the paste as a cure for ailments like diarrhoea, jaundice, and indigestion. He soon started selling concentrated ketchup in pill form, marketing the medical properties of tomatoes. As its popularity and demand increased, other companies started making their own tomato ketchup and tomato pills (although in reality many copycats were just selling laxatives instead).

All its purported benefits, alas, did not carry much weight, and before long it became obvious that ketchup was not the miracle medicine it had been touted as. The false claims eventually saw the ketchup medicine empire crumbling by the 1850s.

Its fall from favour as a medicine did not mean the end for the product, however. Along came Heinz, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Ultimately, tomato ketchup gained commercial popularity as a food item in the late 1800s and has since become the world’s favourite condiment, served with everything from fries to burgers to pakoras.