Facts and Quotes:
Ketchup as a Renaissance condiment. In 1690, Chinese cooks developed a brine sauce of pickled fish, shellfish and spices that they used on fish and fowl. They called the tangy sauce 'ke-tsiap'. This new sauce became popular and its use spread to Malaysia, where is was called 'kechop'. Then in the early eighteenth century, English sailors traveling to Malaysia and Singapore bought kechop and brought it home to England. English chefs tried to copy the Chinese recipe but lacked many of the Eastern ingredients required, so they substituted things like mushrooms, walnuts and cucumbers. The English called this sauce 'ketchup'.
