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September 14, 2022

Heinz or Bust: How Our City's Favorite Ketchup Became King

City Cast Pittsburgh

Heinz or Bust: How Our City's Favorite Ketchup Became King

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Can you imagine sitting down with a crispy plate of fries, reaching for your trusty bottle of ketchup, and watching it explode? It was a real problem in the late 19th century! But our very own H.J. Heinz figured it out — or rather, he had one very special fan who did it for him. We're with writer Sam Lin-Sommer of Gastro Obscura to talk about how it all went down.

Check out his story, “When Every Ketchup But One Went Extinct,” which draws a ton from a book by Andrew F. Smith called “Pure Ketchup: A History of America’s National Condiment.”

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