From The Food Encyclopedia by Jacques Rolland and Carol Sherman
Also catchup, catsup. The ubiquitous, predominantly North American condiment with exotic origins; its name comes from the ancient Chinese sauce called ke-tsiap; in many Eastern countries, one can find sauces called keo-siap, kitjap or ketjap. In the 1800s, English cooks recreated a Malaysian fish sauce and called it ki chop. The first known recipe for tomato ketchup was published by immigrant American cook James Mease, who supported the British in the American Revolution and who moved to Nova Scotia. He called the condiment, which he had made in New Jersey prior to 1782, "love apple", which is an affectionate nickname for the tomato or "tomato ketchup." Previous recipes for "ketchup", or "catchup" (from the Malay kechap), had been for an unstrained, spicy, soy sauce-based fish sauce. Cook's Oracle, a cookbook by London physician William Kitchiner (1775-1827), gives a recipe for "tomata" ketchup, which he called "Wow-Wow Sauce", containing anchovies and strained tomato pulp. The earliest maker of ketchup in the U.S., and certainly now the most well known, was Henry John Heinz, who made the first bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup in 1869.
