Ketchup—that cheerful red sauce sold in handy glass bottles—first came on the American market in the 19th century. But its ingredients were shockingly different than they are today.

If you're the kind of person who puts ketchup on your ketchup, and you find the act of squeezing or sliding the red goop out ...

But the story of ketchup actually begins in Asia. We think of ketchup as a thick red sauce, but it was something pretty different in the beginning. It originated as a thin soy sauce made from ...