How Is Catsup Made?
Preparing and Pre-Cooking Tomatoes Modern catsup begins with fresh tomatoes. Modern catsup, also known as ketchup, refers to a thick tomato-based condiment popular as a topping for hamburgers and French fries. Commercial ketchup companies prepare their own recipes for this product, which they then package for sale. Tomatoes enter the catsup factory by riding down a water chute out of the delivery trucks. The water both pads the tomatoes and rinses excess dirt from them. A visual examination looks for defective tomatoes and removes them before the remaining ones get chopped and placed into large stainless steel cooking vats. Pulping and Stewing The partially cooked tomatoes have their seeds, skins and stems separated from the fruit through the use of centripetal force in a separator machine known as a cyclone. Several screens further filter particles from the tomato pulp and juice until a tomato paste remains. The pulped tomato paste moves into large cooking vats with paddles inside to
