The Money-Making Great Killer

"Ketchup?"

Beside the campfire, Little Ox looked hesitantly at the potatoes and ketchup in front of him and asked Xu Yun, "It's a sauce made from tomatoes, right?"

"That's right."

"But aren't tomatoes poisonous?"

Hearing Little Ox's words, Xu Yun couldn't help but laugh:

"Mr. Newton, everyone says tomatoes are poisonous, and historically, people have indeed died from eating them.

But think carefully, who were the people who had trouble eating tomatoes, or what class were they?"

"People? Class?"

Hearing Xu Yun's words, Little Ox was stunned at first, then thought of something and ran back into the house after saying, "Wait for me, I'll go get a book."

After a moment.

Little Ox returned to the scene with a book about three centimeters thick, flipping through it as he walked:

"...William Pott, an agricultural magnate in Leeds City. Milton Bridges, a royal noble in Spain. Cicely Wyatt, a legitimate daughter of a noble in Italy."

In Little Ox's hand was John Gerard's Herbal, the culprit that relegated tomatoes to the cold shoulder in modern Europe.

He explicitly stated in the book that 'tomatoes are poisonous and cannot be eaten,' so no one in England dared to eat tomatoes throughout the 17th century.

It wasn't until the mid-18th century that the English gradually dared to use tomatoes in everyday dishes, and they had to be steamed for a long time to eliminate the toxins.

This book recorded a large number of cases of poisoning from eating tomatoes, and these examples became strong evidence for John Gerard's argument.

Slap--

After flipping through more than ten examples, Little Ox slammed the book shut and said thoughtfully, "Class."

A few seconds later, his eyes suddenly lit up:

"Right, it is a bit strange. These people all seem to be merchants or powerful figures who aren't short of money? How come there isn't a single commoner?"

A smile played on Xu Yun's lips as he continued to guide him:

"Mr. Newton, think about what kind of tableware they used?"

"Tableware?"

Little Ox's gaze drifted slightly towards the sky, looking at the moonlight as he recalled, "Usually it was pewter, I've seen it a few times at banquets at school. When Uncle William was still rich years ago, he also attended some upper-middle-class gatherings."

"Then think again, what in pewter could react with tomatoes?"

Little Ox was already vaguely sensing something, and even before Xu Yun gave any hints, he began to ponder the direction of dissolution and reaction:

"Pewter is usually a mixture, basically silver, tin, and lead, etc. Lead?!"

He tightly gripped the book in one hand and suddenly looked up, staring intently at Xu Yun:

"You mean the acid in tomatoes dissolved the lead in the pewter, leading to poisoning and death?!"

Xu Yun shrugged, remaining silent, letting the implication speak for itself.

Tomatoes were one of the specialties brought back by the Spanish from the Americas in the early 16th century.

They flowed into England at the end of the 16th century, but for a long time, people only treated tomatoes as ornamental plants and dared not eat them.

The first reason was that tomatoes belonged to the nightshade family, and most nightshade plants contain toxic alkaloids, such as deadly nightshade and datura, which are poisonous.

So people at that time believed tomatoes were also poisonous and should be avoided.

But in reality, the toxins in tomatoes are mainly found in the roots, stems, and unripe fruits. The content of mature tomatoes' alkaloids is already very, very low and poses no significant harm to health.

The second reason was the aforementioned quack John Gerard. In 1597, his Herbal directly classified tomatoes as poisonous—but in fact, this part of his content was plagiarized from an article by Dodonaeus, and he even misspelled the tomato's name "lycopersicum" as "lycoperticum."

Unfortunately, there were no public channels for debunking rumors in Europe at the time, and the examples cited by John Gerard had all actually happened. This led to tomatoes being excluded from the menu for a long time and growing wild everywhere.

For instance, not long ago, Xu Yun casually searched outside and found quite a few wild, ripe tomatoes that no one was willing to eat.

This misunderstanding of tomatoes made Xu Yun think of ketchup, a super weapon.

Don't underestimate ketchup, it might seem unremarkable, far from things like soap or antibiotics.

But in modern Europe, the status of ketchup is almost equivalent to Laoganma in China, or even more so.

Fries, burgers, afternoon tea, bread, steak. Almost anything goes with ketchup.

Speaking of ketchup, there's also a little-known story.

Everyone probably knows that the English name for tomato sauce is ketchup, but this name does not originate from English itself, but is a transliteration from another language.

That language is not another foreign language, but Chinese!

The earliest record of the word "ketchup" being used in English in the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1690 (Ketchup - Wikipedia), but the ingredient was not tomato.

The word's origin is the Chinese "ke-tsiap," which originally referred to the brine produced from fermented fish, used for seasoning during cooking.

Ren Shaotang, a professor at Stanford University, once wrote a blog post titled "The Language of Food," in which he argued that the origin of ketchup can be traced back to a type of fish sauce from eastern Fujian Province:

In the 18th century, this fish sauce was known by different regional names in Southern Min dialects, such as 'ketchup,' 'ge-tchup,' or 'kue-chiap.'

Those familiar with Southern Min or Cantonese dialects can recognize the last syllable of the word's Americanized pronunciation, 'chiap' or 'tchup,' which means 'sauce' (jiàng). In Mandarin, it's pronounced 'zhī' (zhī).

He also wrote that the 1982 edition of the "Dictionary of Mandarin and Southern Min Dialects" confirms that "蕃" is an archaic character, pronounced "gue" in Southern Min colloquial speech, meaning preserved fish.

Therefore, "蕃茄酱" (fān qié jiàng) in Southern Min dialect is an archaic term for "fish sauce" (鱼酱). (Two papers, DOI: 10.1515/bz-1969-0202, DOI: 10.2307/2852096, the latter is from Cambridge)

Of course.

With updates and iterations, the current tomato sauce bears little resemblance to the ketchup of the 17th century.

It's like how the ancestor of cats is the Proailurus, indicating a connection in origin.

Xu Yun then glanced around; as time passed, the outdoor temperature grew increasingly low:

"Mr. Newton, why don't you try a couple of bites? It's a very common sauce in our East. Not only is it non-toxic, but some people have even become rich tycoons after eating it, cough cough, became millionaires!"

Hearing this, Little Ox couldn't help but examine the ketchup in front of him again, his expression hesitant:

Although he didn't want to admit it, this Easterner named Fat Fish had brought him many good things and helped him quite a bit since his appearance.

With that thought, Little Ox made up his mind and picked up a potato.

It wouldn't kill him, so he might as well try a little.

The skin of the baked potato was a bit hot. Little Ox quickly shifted the potato between his hands, constantly blowing on it.

With the help of the cool air, the potato's surface temperature quickly dropped.

Little Ox skillfully pinched a slightly indented spot and applied gentle pressure.

As a puff of white smoke rose, the potato split in two.

He then took the smaller half in his hand, dipped it in the ketchup Xu Yun had prepared, and put it into his mouth along with the potato.

After a moment, Little Ox let out a soft sound:

"Hmm? It tastes pretty good, delicious!"

At this time, the condiments in England were very scarce. Bread with butter was basically the most common fare. Besides that, they would pickle vegetables with salted meat and make early, simple salads with pomegranate seeds and peeled limes.

Therefore, the appearance of ketchup filled the gap between 'sour' and 'sweet.' Its popularity had been proven countless times in later generations. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that this condiment and Europeans were a match made in heaven.

Seeing Little Ox already dipping his second bite, Xu Yun smiled slightly and said:

"So, Mr. Newton, if we set a reasonable price for this ketchup and sell it, do you think people would be willing to pay for it?"

"Sell? Pay?"

Clack--

Upon hearing these keywords, Little Ox froze on the spot, like a toy that had lost power.

He didn't even notice the potato falling to the ground.

A few seconds later.

A light suddenly flashed in his eyes, as if two gold coins were embedded within, shining brightly.

Yesterday, the ratio of people who liked and disliked the book title reached 10-1. Damn it.