# Mushroom ketchup **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 8, 2000, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-ketchup/36127 "2000-10-08T05:38:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2000, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-ketchup/36127/1 "2000-10-08T05:38:42Z")
I’ve seen references to mushroom ketchup (or catsup, whichever) in books and shows, all of them originating in the UK. I imagine this would be a very tasty sauce for beef and chicken. I’ve never seen this substance in the US, though. IS it commercially available in the United States? Am I just not shopping in the Right Places? Or is it just not available locally? I live in Texas. ---
**Author:** ![Starbury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Starbury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starbury)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2000, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-ketchup/36127/2 "2000-10-08T05:57:41Z")
I’m deathly allergic to mushrooms, but I hope this helps: [Try here]([http://www.seasonalchef.com/historybook.htm#Mushroom](http://www.seasonalchef.com/historybook.htm#Mushroom) Catsup) (In my biased opinion, I’ll settle for Heinz) Anyway…from my (limited) research, I have gathered that this is an American recipe from the 19th Century, often employed by women in their pursuit of eligible male bachelors. I have not seen an English or European (Continental) recipes for this. Good luck. Or Bon Appetite. Whichever suits you in this endeavor! ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2000, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-ketchup/36127/3 "2000-10-08T06:11:26Z")
A condiment consisting of a thick, smooth-textured, spicy sauce _usually_ made from tomatoes. Italics mine. Thank you, Lynn, for the education. Ketchup is more than the red (or, lately, green) tomato based goo. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2000, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-ketchup/36127/4 "2000-10-08T06:12:48Z")
Whoops! Thank you, Starbury ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2000, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-ketchup/36127/5 "2000-10-08T06:14:23Z")
[http://store.yahoo.com/ketchupworld/geowatmusket.html](http://store.yahoo.com/ketchupworld/geowatmusket.html) All reference I’ve ever heard were from about a century ago. The above link is for an actual product still sold. ---
**Author:** ![Starbury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f04885/32.png) [@Starbury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starbury)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2000, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-ketchup/36127/6 "2000-10-08T06:23:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Doug Bowe \* > \*\*Ketchup is more than the red (or, lately, green) tomato based goo. \*\* I still haven’t seen this mythical green catsup/ketchup, though I have seen manny, manny people talking about it here! I live in NJ… to hijack the OP, has anyone seen this green ketchup in the Northeast of America? [Homer]mmmm…green ketchup…[/Homer] ---
**Author:** ![JavaMaven1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@JavaMaven1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JavaMaven1)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2000, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-ketchup/36127/7 "2000-10-08T06:29:52Z")
From _The Oxford Companion to Food_ by Alan Davidson: “ **Tomato ketchup** is the best known and almost the only ketchup left nowadays although formerly there were many different kinds, the only common features being their salty taste, their concentrated texture, and the fact that they kept well. Although tomato ketchup contains and indeed tastes principally of sugar and vinegar, mushroom ketchup contains neither, and is nothing other than a salted mushroom extract, differing also from tomato ketchup in its liquid transparent consistency. C. Anne Wilson (1973) believes that mushroom ketchup was the first kind in Britian; people used to pickle mushrooms, intending to use the mushrooms, but then started using the pickle too, and finally took to using the pickle (pickling liquid) by itself.” So, mushroom ketchup would actually be closer to Worcestershire Sauce rather than Heinz tomato ketchup. Still, this would most likely be very good in using in a sauce for a beef dish. ---
**Author:** ![Jorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@Jorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jorge)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2000, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-ketchup/36127/8 "2000-10-08T08:23:03Z")
FWIW, any Asian market, and quite a few big-chain supermarkets on the West Coast, carry _banana ketchup_. ---
**Author:** ![Akatsukami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea666f/32.png) [@Akatsukami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akatsukami)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2000, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-ketchup/36127/9 "2000-10-08T16:26:36Z")
If you feel like making your own, Lynn, here’s a recipe: > [@](#): > > \*\*MUSHROOM CATCHUP > > 1 peck (8 quarts) mushrooms > 1 cup water > 2 cups vinegar > 2 tablespoons salt > 1 tablespoon cinnamon > ½ tablespoon cloves > ½ teaspoon mace > 2 tablespoons prepared mustard > ¼ teaspoon cayenne\*\* > > Pick over mushrooms, clean, peel, and slice. Discard any tough portions of stems. Cook mushrooms in the water until tender, stirring frequently. Press through a sieve and add vinegar, salt and spices. Boil 30 minuts, pour into sterile jars and seal. Makes 12 (½ pint) jars. This, from the _Encyclopedic Cookbook_ (which, despite **Phobia** ’s assertion, is only _half_ a century old :)) It also contains recipes for lemon catchup, grape-apple catchup, the ubiquitous tomato catchup, chili sauce (which in that incarnation is a sort of tomato-sweet pepper catsup that contains no chili(s)), and curing your own bacon and ham (you don’t see many recipes any more that begin, “Take 100 pounds of fresh ham…” :)), among many other things. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2000, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-ketchup/36127/10 "2000-10-08T19:02:36Z")
Thank you all…I guess I’ll just stick to gently sauteing mushrooms to make a sauce, if I want that flavor. I do NOT do canning. ---
**Author:** ![JonF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@JonF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonF)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2000, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-ketchup/36127/11 "2000-10-08T21:09:08Z")
The most recent edition of the Joy of Cooking has a recipe for mushroom ketchup … it’s a key ingredient in my family-recipe salad dressing. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2000, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-ketchup/36127/12 "2000-10-08T22:16:09Z")
Akatsukami: I said that the references I had heard of were about a century old, and that is when it was popular in the recipie books. My link is to a modern day source of the stuff. It is available premade now, as in still around. ---
**Author:** ![Malarky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@Malarky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malarky)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2000, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-ketchup/36127/13 "2000-10-09T01:04:32Z")
I’m more worried about that new green ketchup…