I think I\u2019ve mention in the past that when our daughter Kelly was little, she wanted ketchup on everything. Her opinion was \u2014 in fact maybe the opinion of most reasonable, intelligent people \u2014 ketchup was a miracle sauce. But I\u2019ve noticed that every time I pick up a bottle of Heinz ketchup, the little label near the neck of the bottle says that there are at least 56 more varieties of this magical concoction.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that\u2019s not true. Actually, I think there is only one type of ketchup \u2014 tomato. It turns out that Henry J. Heinz didn\u2019t get his start in the condiment industry by selling ketchup. He was born in Pittsburgh and began his food-sales career before he was a teenager selling vegetables that he grew himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later, his main job was managing the family brick-making business, but he began selling prepared horseradish door to door. He didn\u2019t get into the ketchup game until later after he\u2019d already built a relatively large condiments business selling horseradish, pickles, and sauerkraut. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the time that Heinz came up with his famous slogan, he wasn\u2019t offering 57 sauce varieties, but he was peddling more than 60 kinds of food, including something called \u201ceuchred pickles.\u201d Hines sauce bottles still today contain a \u201c57 varieties\u201d label. There is a lot of speculation as to what it means. Some guessed it was because the company was founded in a year ending 1ith 57, others speculated it was how many tomatoes were in each bottle, and one person guessed that the placement of the label had to do with it being the best place to squeeze the sauce our of the bottle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It turns out that the \u201c57 varieties\u201d label on the neck of the Heinz Ketchup was chosen completely at random by Henry Heinz. Heinz decided he needed a number logo after he spotted a shoe company advertising 21 styles of shoes. Some believe that five was Heinz\u2019s lucky number and seven was his wife\u2019s lucky number. But the number 57 was apparently just a totally random number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today the Heinz company sells more than a thousand products, ranging from baby food to barbecue sauce. Of course only one of these products really matter \u2014 and most America-loving citizens know what it is.
So it\u2019s good to know where the 57 came from, but I still don\u2019t know the difference between catsup and ketchup.
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I think I\u2019ve mention in the past that when our daughter Kelly was little, she wanted ketchup on everything. Her opinion was \u2014 in fact maybe the opinion of most reasonable, intelligent people \u2014 ketchup was a miracle sauce. But … Continue reading