Return to the Lost Ketchup

November 8 2023 Day Eight

Yesterday, my friend Lydia who is into such things, sent me a recipe for homemade ketchup by British writer Martin Walker. He’s just released a new cookbook based on his Bruno detective series and lo and behold, a ketchup recipe.

Well, you may ask, what does THAT have to do with anything? And to that, dear, reader, I say just look at this picture of the Italian tomato lady that accompanies the recipe. Would you or would you not eat literally anything that she made? I sure would!

Whatever she makes, I will eat

This recipe also hearkens us back a full year, to a story Uma and I did on the famous Hooksett-based farm J.S. Burbank and Co. Between 1888 and 1913, Burbank’s sold Clara Burbank’s popular ketchup recipe, distributing ketchup bottles on farmer Burbank’s milk route. The ketchup became so famous that at one point, 12,000 bottles were being sold per year from the farm’s 10,000 tomato plants.

Nothing remains of Burbank’s farm today, except Hooksett did erect a historical sign near the property. When we wrote the story, we made a concerted effort to find Clara’s actual recipe. We promised that once we found it, we’d make it. Well, I’m here to tell you that one year on and no recipe has been found. From historical societies to decendents of Clara, not a trace. We fear this could truly be a recipe lost to time.

So, I thought I’d put the word out and see if we could resurrect this cold ketchup case. Or at the very least, maybe you have a recipe you’d like to share. What did your grandma make that you still have a taste memory for?