In the 1690s the Chinese mixed together a tasty concoction of pickled fish and spices and called it ke-tsiap.
By the early 1700s, the table sauce had made it to Malaysia, where it was discovered by British explorers, and by 1740, it had become an English staple.
Fifty years later, North Americans added tomatoes to the Chinese recipe, and ketchup as we now know it had arrived.
Tomatoes were considered poisonous for most of the eighteenth century because they’re a close relative to the toxic belladonna and nightshade plants.
