Fourth Grade
Worksheets
How Ketchup is Made, Then and Now
Before ketchup was sold in stores, it was made at home. It would take a full day to make a batch of ketchup. First, you had to have a lot of ripe tomatoes. They had to be washed and scalded (dipped in boiling water) so they would peel easily. Then the seeds were squeezed out. This would leave only the meat and juice of the tomato.
The meat of the tomatoes had to be mashed to a pulp and cooked. Sugar, vinegar, salt, onions, and spices were added to give the sauce more taste. It was all cooked together in large iron kettles on wood-burning stoves. It had to be stirred constantly so the sauce didn't burn.
Once some of the extra water was cooked off, making the sauce thicker, it was ready to be bottled. That was another process altogether, not counting the need to thoroughly scrub out the iron kettles at the end of the day.
