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> Ketchup really just means a fruit based sauce

No, it doesn't.

> so it long preceded the arrival of the tomato.

It did, but ketchups before tomato weren't necessarily fruit based. The original British version (and thus, the first American version, from which the other pre-tomato version derived) was mushroom based. Fruit, nut, egg, and bivalve-based versions all existed. (And the historical origin is in Asian fermented fish and soy sauces.)

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Is it Asian? I'd assumed—with no real support whatsoever—that it was descended from Roman garum, a fermented fish sauce that's a lot closer.

Looking it up again (was relying on memory before), it was apparently specifically Indonesian kecaps that inspired both the sauce and it's name.

You rock mate, thank you

It's a weird quirk of history. Garum was forgotten for centuries, then the same basic concept reintroduced much later from Asia.

It still wasn't used quite the way garum was, but it did give rise to things like Worcestershire sauce, and various ketchups (fermented vegetable pastes). Tomato ketchup came much later, and it wasn't until Heinz perfected it that it reached the form that's ubiquitous now.

I have to frickin try this now!! Dude thank you for the knowledge drop, I had no idea it first started as mushroom based.

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