One of the world’s oldest condiments - Dan Kwartler

翻译人员: Gia Hwang 校对人员: Carol Wang

In the mid-18th century, England was crazy for ketchup.

在十八世纪中叶，英国痴迷番茄酱。

The sauce was a staple,

这种酱汁是常规食品，

and countless cookbooks encouraged adding ketchup

无数食谱鼓励

to stews, vegetables, and even desserts.

在炖菜、蔬菜甚至甜点中加入番茄酱。

If these seem like odd places for ketchup’s tangy tomato flavor,

若其浓郁番茄风味在此显得很怪异，

that’s because this ketchup wasn’t the ubiquitous red goop you’re thinking of.

是因为此番茄酱并非你脑海里

那无处不在的红色粘稠物。

In fact, this sweet and savory brown sauce didn't even have tomatoes in it.

其实，此款甜美可口的棕色酱汁里

根本就没有西红柿。

So where did this early ketchup come from?

那么，这款早期番茄酱出自何方呢？

And how did it become the dip we know and love today?

而它又是如何演变为

我们今天所熟知和喜爱的蘸料呢？

To answer these questions,

要回答这些问题，

we’ll need to turn to ketchup’s condiment cousin: fish sauce.

我们需要提及番茄酱的同族调味品：

鱼露。

As early as 300 BCE, Chinese fishermen routinely caught batches of small fish

早在公元前 300 年，

中国渔民经常捕获成批的小鱼，

that were too plentiful to eat all at once,

这些小鱼多得无法一次全部吃完，

but too time consuming to individually preserve.

单独保存因过于耗时而不现实。

So often, the day’s catch would be salted and stored together.

因此，当天捕的小鱼通常一起腌制储存。

Over several months, the fish would ferment

几个月后，

当鱼体内的酶分解其蛋白质时，会发酵。

as their internal enzymes broke down their bodies’ proteins.

The result was a rich, salty liquid

产生浓郁的咸味液体，

which would be strained and stored as fish sauce.

过滤后作为鱼露储存。

Chinese fishermen weren’t the only ones to figure out this savory seasoning.

中国渔民并非唯一制出此美味调料的人，

Ancient Greeks, and later the Romans that conquered them,

古希腊人以及后来征服希腊的罗马人 ，

built their entire cuisine around fish sauce’s strong umami flavor.

他们的全部美食

都是围绕鱼露浓郁的鲜味制作的。

The sauce, which they called garum,

他们称为鱼酱（garum）的酱汁，

traveled with every soldier to the Empire’s front lines.

随每位士兵前往帝国的前线。

And they constructed dozens of fish sauce factories throughout the Mediterranean,

他们在地中海建造了数十家鱼露工厂，

each capable of producing thousands of gallons of garum.

每家工厂能生产数千加仑的鱼酱。

But when the Roman Empire collapsed, so did their condiment business.

但是当罗马帝国崩溃时，

其调味品业务也随之崩塌。

Most Europeans continued to cook without fish sauce for a thousand years,

在随后的一千年里，

多数欧洲人一直无法用鱼露做饭，

until the Dutch East India Company arrived in Southeast Asia in the early 1600s.

直到荷兰东印度公司

在十七世纪初进入东南亚。

The Dutch and English exploited this region for countless goods,

荷兰人和英国人

在该地区牟取了无数货物，

including barrels of their most common local condiment.

包括桶装的当地最常见的调味品。

This familiar, fishy liquid had many names,

这种熟悉的鱼腥味液体有很多名字，

including “ke-tsiap” and “koe-cheup.”

包括 “ke-tsiap” 和 “koe-cheup”，

But upon arrival in British ports, its title was bastardized into ketchup,

但是在抵达英国港口后，

它的名字就变成了番茄酱（ketchup），

thus beginning Europe’s second wave of fish sauce supremacy.

由此开启了欧洲第二波鱼露霸主浪潮。

European ships supplied ketchup throughout the Western Hemisphere

欧洲船只向整个西半球供应番茄酱，

until they were kicked out of Asian trade hubs in the mid-1700s.

直到十八世纪中期被逐出亚洲贸易中心。

But the public refused to let ketchup go the way of garum.

但公众拒绝让番茄酱随鱼酱退出而消失，

A whole crop of British cookbooks emerged with recipes for knockoff ketchups,

英国涌现了一大批烹饪书，

里面都有山寨番茄酱的食谱，

containing everything from oysters and anchovies to mushrooms and walnuts.

从牡蛎和凤尾鱼到蘑菇核桃，应有尽有。

Soon, ketchup became a catch-all name for any brown sauce.

很快，番茄酱成为任何红酱的统称。

And this great ketchup hunt produced some of England’s most enduring condiments,

这场番茄酱大尝试比拼

产生了一些英国最经久不衰的番茄酱，

including Worcestershire, A1, and HP sauce.

包括伍斯特酱、A1 酱和 HP 酱。

But it was a chef across the Atlantic

但是，大西洋彼岸的一位厨师

who would introduce a new color to the equation.

为番茄酱引入了一种新颜色。

While tomatoes varied in popularity across Europe,

虽然西红柿在欧洲各国受欢迎程度不一，

American chefs were putting the New World fruit in all kinds of dishes.

但美国厨师

却将这种新大陆水果烹制成各种菜肴。

And in 1812, Philadelphian physician and food hobbyist James Mease

1812 年，费城医生兼美食爱好者 詹姆斯·梅斯（James Mease）

推出了首款以番茄为原料的番茄酱——

debuted the first tomato-based ketchup—

a thin, watery concoction of tomato pulp, spices, raw shallots, and brandy.

由番茄果肉、香料、生青葱和白兰地

混合而成的稀薄含水混合物。

This was a far-cry from fish sauce,

它与鱼露相去甚远，

but tomatoes have high levels of glutamate—

但西红柿含有大量谷氨酸钠，

the same chemical responsible for fish sauce’s rich umami flavor.

这种化学物质也是鱼露浓郁鲜味的来源。

And Mease’s timing was perfect.

而且梅斯的时机把握得恰到好处。

The back half of the 1800s saw a surge in bottled foods,

十九世纪后半叶，瓶装食品激增，

and tomato ketchup was adopted by several burgeoning bottle businesses.

几家新兴瓶装企业采用生产番茄酱。

By the 1870s, most tomato ketchups had dropped the shallots and brandy

到了十九世纪七十年代，

多数番茄酱不再使用香葱和白兰地，

for sugar, salt, and sodium benzoate—

而是改用糖、盐和苯甲酸钠——

a questionable preservative found in most bottled foods.

一种存疑的防腐剂，多数瓶装食品都有。

But the most important change to this recipe was yet to come.

但是，这种配方最重要的改变还在后面。

After a slow start selling pickled vegetables,

亨利·J·亨氏腌制菜的销售起步缓慢，

Henry J. Heinz began selling a wide variety of popular ketchups.

遂开始销售各种广受欢迎的番茄酱。

And at the turn of the 20th century,

在二十世纪之交，

his desire to use healthier, natural ingredients

亨氏渴望使用更健康、天然食材，

led Heinz to swap the sodium benzoate

于是他将苯甲酸钠换成了

for riper tomatoes and a huge amount of vinegar.

更成熟的番茄和大量的醋。

The resulting thick, goopy formula was an instant best seller—

尽管这种粘稠的配方更难从瓶中取出，

despite being much harder to get out of the bottle.

但一经推出便大受欢迎。

Over the 20th century, this salty red sauce covered the globe—

二十世纪以来，这种咸味红酱遍布全球，

pairing perfectly with the ambassadors of American cuisine.

与美国美食大使完美结合。

Today, 90% of American households have ketchup in their kitchens,

如今，90％ 的美国家庭 厨房里都有番茄酱，

and Heinz’s recipe has even become the base

亨氏的配方甚至成为

其他数十种酱汁和调味料的基础，

for dozens of other sauces and dressings—

all descendants of the same fishy family tree.

所有这些都是鱼味家族的后代。