The Ketchup Conundrum | Hacker News Reader

The Ketchup Conundrum

gladwell.com

17 pointsjorkos7 comments

Curry ketchup is very popular in Germany. The street food of Berlin is currywurst, which is just a sausage with curry powder and curry ketchup. The curry ketchup in Germany is not only curry-flavored but sweeter than American Heinz ketchup. So is it a different kind of ketchup or just "currywurst sauce?" Does it not count because ketchup wasn't already established as a specific taste in Germany?

I think it does count as different kind of ketchup - however if you plot the popularity of different ketchup flavors - I am guessing you'll get a pointed peak bell curve - whereas mustard would give you a longer tail curve. My point is that examples exist (I consider BBQ sauce as a variant of ketchup) but the distribution is much skewed in favor of 1 flavor for ketchups.

I don't see the point of this. Yes, mustard was able to be improved and managed to have multiple flavors.

Ketchup didn't see enough improvement and ended up with still only 1 flavor.

Spaghetti sauce was something that could sell in many flavors and so they do it.

There is no conundrum. People simply don't want ketchup that isn't ketchup.

And for the record, Grey Poupon may technically be mustard, but it's used differently. If you're making a sandwich, GP is a great flavor. If you're making a hamburger or hotdog, GP doesn't taste right and regular mustard is better.

And finally, can we learn anything from this as developers? I propose this:

Listen to the market. If you can't convince people that your product is better in some way, then it probably isn't.

>>There is no conundrum. People simply don't want ketchup that isn't ketchup.

That IS the conundrum - why are people fine with mustard that's not mustard. Is there something inherent in the taste ? Can some tastes be universal and some customizable?

It's the color. People want to be able to see the difference at the same time they're tasting it. That's easier to do with a base that is bright yellow than dark red.

My local library has an interesting book called "Pure Ketchup" that covers all this and more. Among things that Gladwell didn't talk about is that before tomato ketchup became standard there were dozens of totally different savory sauces called ketchups. From the number of recipes in the list in the back of the book, anchovy ketchup was one of the most popular. One that actually looked good enough that I tried making it was grape ketchup - sort of a runnier, not as sweet grape jam - it is good on turkey instead of cranberry sauce. Judging from the list, our ancestors made ketchup out of nearly anything they could get a hold of.

This is the perfect time of year to make your own. All you need is big box of seconds from the farm stand, a big pot, and a food mill. Cook it slow for several hours on one day, then run it through the mill. Next day, cook it down. Spices to taste, a little sugar. A screen over the pot will reduce the amount of cleanup you have to do.

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