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She studied food chemistry in the United States when she was in her early 20s, graduating with a bachelor's and master's degree from the University of Washington. Orosa took that knowledge and applied it back home to help make sustainable foods out of ingredients indigenous to the Philippines. Since tomatoes had to be imported, she created a similar sauce out of mashed bananas, various spices, vinegar, and a dash of red food coloring to take the place of pricey American ketchup. Banana Ketchup is a popular and favorite ketchup condiment in the Philippines. The ingredients is composed mainly of mashed Banana , brown sugar, Vinegar, spices and seasonings.
Use with fried rice and noodles, eggs, hot dogs, burgers, fries, fish, pork and chicken. Orosa had other inventions as well, but none that so effortlessly took over kitchens and counters all over the islands. In 1942, this ingredient started being mass-produced by Magdalo V. Francisco, Sr. under his brand, Mafran, which you can still find gracing the grocery store shelves today. Interestingly enough, the Bon AIPpetit recipe also includes a few items you might not see in other recipes, such as molasses and coconut aminos. On the other hand, McCormick also offers a banana ketchup recipe that doesn’t include any tomatoes.
How to Store
There's also a banana ketchup pasta dish called Filipino spaghetti, which involves plenty of the sauce heated and mixed with hot dog slices before getting tossed with noodles. Banana ketchup is also great on eggs, over rice, and as a side for meats, vegetables, and anything you want to add a fruity tang to. Food scientist María Orosa helped revitalize the country with her edible inventions, banana ketchup being the most famous of the bunch.
Del Monte® Ketchup, Chili Sauce, Seafood Cocktail Sauce, Orchard Select® Products, and SunFresh® products will retain their quality for 1 to 2 weeks when stored in the refrigerator. The date is a guide for stores to know how long they can display a particular product. Try it at home and let us know your experience ein the comments section below. Did you know that banana ketchup isn’t the only odd variety of ketchup out there? Historically, ketchup has been made from all sorts of interesting and unexpected ingredients, from mushrooms and oysters to soybeans and more. For those specifically trying to remove tomatoes from their day-to-day diets, consider making simple swaps where tomatoes are most likely to be present.
Where Do You Buy Banana Ketchup?
Also, let me know your experience along the way. If you have other versions, let us know so that we can also share it here. Once cooled down, transfer to air tight containers or jars. The Spruce Eats is part of the Dotdash Meredith publishing family.
The Serious Eats recipe adds in a range of spices, such as ginger, turmeric and allspice, alongside rum and honey, plus extra flavor from jalapeños and soy sauce. Think of basic ketchup, then add a sweet tang to it, and you have banana ketchup. Due to the vinegar and spices, this item tastes a lot like the food it was meant to replace, but the tropical fruit aspect gives it a layer of juicy sweetness.
How does banana ketchup taste?
During World War II, the Philippines experienced food shortages and needed to find an alternative to the seasoning they had liked very much. Based on this, Philippine food technologist and pharmaceutical chemist Maria Orosa invented the first tomato sauce made from bananas, which grew abundantly in the Philippines. With the addition of vinegar, sugar and spices, Maria was able to create a sauce similar to tomato sauce and it has remained a staple in Filipino cuisine ever since. Banana ketchup was invented by Maria Orosa, a Filipina food chemist who wanted to decrease the Philippines’ reliance on culinary imports.
Also, this recipe uses banana ketchup in the Filipino spaghetti dish mentioned above. However, don’t assume you can just swap out your regular ketchup for Filipino banana ketchup in any recipe and have a comparable experience. While Jufran is one of the more popular brands of banana ketchup, another option is Baron Banana Ketchup. You’ll automatically notice that this ketchup’s color is much more banana-like. However, the ingredients list is much more palatable for those trying to stick to ingredients that you can actually recognize, as well as avoid artificial flavors and dyes. If you want to make your own banana ketchup at home, you’ll find a few recipe options.
Is dark ketchup bad?
Marrying into a Filipino family, I've come to know banana ketchup, but never thought it was on the grilling radar enough to get into a grilling cookbook. Bananas, vinegar, and sugar were combined to create a loose facsimile of its tomato counterpart, then dyed red to fit the "ketchup" label. But, if you don’t want to make your banana ketchup at home, you can always buy some. One of the most popular brands is Jufran, which sells its banana ketchup under the term of banana sauce instead of ketchup. For this particular ketchup, the ingredients are water, sugar, some spices, starches, artificial colors and flavors. Other recipes, like this one posted by Serious Eats, come with a much lengthier list of ingredients, though it still includes tomato paste.
Peggy Trowbridge Filippone is a writer who develops approachable recipes for home cooks. Her recipes range from Grandma’s favorites to the latest food trends. In terms of safety, there’s no real need to refrigerate ketchup. Tomatoes and vinegar, the main components in ketchup, help preserve the condiment at room temperature due to their natural acidity. So, if you prefer your ketchup warm, go ahead and leave it on the pantry shelf.
As the name implies, this red, sweet and tangy condiment is, in fact, made from bananas. But, if you were to taste it, you’d probably never guess. Sarah Tramonte tests, styles and photographs recipes for Taste of Home’s digital platforms. You may also recognize her from Taste of Home's social media pages, as she produces of variety of videos.
In addition to visual production, she writes articles on food trends and recipe comparisons, among other things. Sarah currently lives in Bayview, Milwaukee with her two cats/spoiled roommates, Mochi and Cleo. It’s shelf-stable until you open it, and once the top is popped, store the bottle in a refrigerator.
If you have extra time and are curious on how to make homemade banana ketchup, you should try this Banana Ketchup Recipe. Being away from the Philippines means missing most of its bounty; particularly Filipino food and authentic Filipino condiments. Most of our kababayans overseas can attest to what I’m saying. I’m quite lucky here in Illinois because there are Filipino and Asian stores around that sell Filipino food products. I can go any day to grab my favorite banana catsup.
Food Republic published a banana ketchup recipe from Nicole Ponseca, a Filipino restaurateur based in New York, and her recipe actually includes a little bit of tomato. Looks-wise, the banana ketchup appears almost identical to tomato ketchup when looking with the naked eye. But in terms of origin stories, the banana ketchup wins, hands-down. It tastes surprisingly like tomato ketchup in the sweet and tangy categories, there’s just a lack of bright, acidic, tomato-ness.
Fabian is one of our lovely Content Marketing Assistants who loves writing almost as much as he loves coffee, old episodes of Escape to the Country , and cooking up a storm in his kitchen. Serious Eats is part of the Dotdash Meredith publishing family. Linnea Covington has been writing about food for over a decade. From farmers' markets to award-winning restaurants, if the eats prove good, she's there, often trailed by her two young boys. Store covered, in the refrigerator, for up to 1 month.
