The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1896-09-30
"A NATIONAL SAUCE.
SOMETHING ABOUT TOMATO CATCH
UP, so POPULAR IN THIS COUNTRY.

to, and especially of the national sauce
of America-tomato catchup. Here the
tomato plant attains its highest state of
perfection and produces fruit so lus-
cious, red and round as to justify the
old English name of Glove apple, " to
which the French still cling, calling it
pomme glamour. The tomato plant be
ing native of America, and the name
coming from the Indian word ''tumal, "
it is fitting that tomato catchup should
be on every table in the land.
Widespreading acres are devoted in
Jersey exclusively to the culture of to-
matoes, the choicest of which are re-
served for tomato catchup. There are
large factories in which catchup making
is the chief industry. A random visit to
one of these factories is enough to con-
vince the owner of the most jaded pal
ate that there are flavors yet worth tast-
ing Tomatoes are put up in nearly half
hundred inconceivable ways, but
chiefly in catchup. The cooking is done
on scientific principles. The original rec
ipe for the catchup produced, unlike
that of a certain famous English sauce,
probably came "from an old woman in
the country, but the product has been
so changed and improved by experiment
that the old woman herself would be
forced to admit that she had not attain
ed the highest rank in her art.
The best efforts of at least two skilled
men in one of the factories have been
devoted to improving the flavor of the
catchup, but the result of their labors can
be obtained by the general public only
in the finished product Their processes
are carefully guarded secrets, kept most
carefully locked up in their breasts If
both of them should die suddenly, the
world would miss a distinctive product
of the culinary art. The superintendent
of the factory is one of these men. He
probably knows as much about preserv-
ing fruits and making sauces as any
man in the United States-and maybe
more than any other man. He tells an
interesting story about the famous Eng
lish sauce before mentioned.
The makers of the sauce did an enor-
nous business and kept their recipe
secret. Thieves tried to steal it, and
other manufacturers initiated the flavor,
the bottles, the labels and so forth, but
nobody succeeded in making sauce that
was just like it. The rival marufactur-
ers succeeded i'll getting decisions in
their favor allowing them to use the
same name and even to have similar
coats-of- arms and labels, but the name
of the original makers was q guarantee
of the peculiar quality of their sauce.
One day the foreman of the big works
had a quarrel with the proprietors and
withdrew. He began making and plac-
ing ON the market a sauce so nearly like
the original that connoisseurs could not
tell them apart The foreman kept this
up awhile and then he suddenly retired
from the business, closed his works,
stopped making sauce and lived in lux
ury thereafter. Nobody has any posi-
tive evidence as to the manner in which
he acquired his wealth so suddenly, but
some people can guess.
1.-The secret of the tomato catchup
made here is just as carefully guarded
as that, " said the superintendent. 1--WE
say we make catchup without the use Of
chemicals or colOring matter, and we do
it. Salicylic acid is the standard chem
ical to prevent fermentation. If you can
get just the right amount of that, per-
haps it is not harmful, but the trouble
is you have to use Just a little too much
to make sure that fermentation will not
set in, and that surplus amount of sail
cylic acid binders the natural fermenta-
ton of food in the stomach. 1t is as
plain as that two and two make four.
"Then there is another thing-the
coloring matter. These highly colored
catchups that look so bright are really
not as pleasing to the eye as catchup that
retains the natural color of the tomato,
and they certainly are not so healthful,
for they contain carmine Any one who
knows what carmine is made of doesn't
care to eat it. "
So much for the makers estimate of
his own product. The factory is certain
ly neat and aromatic. A Whit of the
air there after dinner is almost as good
as a dash of tomato catchup. 1t requires
1000 tons of tomatoes daily to supply
the demand for the various preserves
that are put up here. These are furnish
ed largely by the farm i'll connection
with the factory and partly by surround
ing gardeners. The finest, reddest fruit
is reserved for the catchup making. 1t
must be unbruised. This is placed in a
scalding machine, where, with two sep
arate cold washings and hot plunge
bath, the skin is loosened. 1t then goes
into a peculiar machine called the "cy-
clone" which separates the skins and
seeds from the pulp Big porcelain lined
pumps take the pulp to a "sifter, p"
where the coarser tibers are taken out
: and nothing but the blood red fluid per-
J colates through to be made into catchup
t Even this refining process is not enough,
for the water is separated from it, and
the clear pulp is then placed i'll large,
Theoretically sealed cans, where it is
cooked without foreign substances of
: any kind.
= These cans are taken down through
out the year, as occasion demands, and