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Are you a ketchup lover? If so, you’re in luck, because this humble condiment has a wide range of uses beyond just topping your favorite foods. From cleaning hacks to cooking tips, there are many surprising ways to use ketchup that you might not have considered before.
For example, You can use it to clean tarnished brass and copper, remove rust stains from clothing, and even shine up your car’s headlights.
‘Ke-tsiap’ meaning pickled fish sauce is the original name of what we now know it as Ketchup. It was invented by adapting a Chinese recipe called as ‘Cat Sup’, a thick sauce made from tomatoes, starch and a special seasoning.
Although numerous variations to it such as mushroom ketchup, mango ketchup, walnut ketchup, banana ketchup and several other flavours came into existence, the evergreen tomato ketchup remains to be a classic.
What Is Ketchup Made Of?
This mouth-watering, scrumptious dressing is fashioned using just five to six key ingredients. The heavenly mix of ingredients include tomatoes, salt, vinegar, spices, garlic and onion. Cane sugar or beet sugar is usually the preferred choices for sweeteners. The white vinegar is used to preserve the ketchup and maintain its flavours for a long time.
The consumer can experiment the choice of spices to create their own version of the standard ketchup. The common spices such as allspice, cassia, cinnamon, cayenne, cloves, pepper, ginger, mustard, and paprika are used to augment the flavours of the tomatoes.
This appetizing sauce is not only an edible item but is also used for manifold purposes when it comes to fixing things. So, let us dive into some Ketchup hacks that can make our life a bit easier.
15 Uses For Ketchup:
1. Polish Silverware Utensils
Due to the presence of acetic acid in vinegar, ketchup is an effective scrubbing agent. The high viscosity makes it efficient for shining copper, brass and silverware utensils.
Due to its cheap, economic and eco-friendly nature people often tend to clean their jewellery and other valuable possessions with ketchup. People have most widely used this hack to get rid of all the tarnishing.
2. Get Rid Of Burnt Food Stains
Forgot to turn off the gas and eventually burnt the food? No problem, this ketchup hack might save your day. It can assist you in scrubbing and saving some elbow grease.
Cover the burned food and the pot liberally with ketchup and leave it undisturbed overnight. The acids present in the ketchup will loosen the food from the metal. This can easily be washed off in the next morning.
3. Shine Your Copper Utensils
The health benefits associated with using copper as utensils are numerous. Due to this fact, each household is acquainted with at least one copper utensil. Corroding of your copper gears can degrade the quality of the material and make it less useful.
Ketchup can be used as a cleaning agent to scrub your cooking pans and other copper utensils. Massaging some amount of tomato ketchup can sparkle your cookware just as new.
4. Homemade Paint Bottles Within Minutes
Worried about dried-up paint bottles? One of the many uses of ketchup includes making homemade paint bottles for your kids drawing class.
Combining equal parts of flour, salt, and water along with some food coloring of preferred choice can create instant paint within minutes. Ketchup bottles can be used as dispensers to store this paint with an easy to use nozzle.
5. Blood With Ketchup That Looks Real
Halloween is our favourite time of the year. It brings our competitive spirit and puts our creative skills at check by dressing up our best. Bring your A-game by taking the help of this ketchup hack that lets you make blood which looks so real that it will freak out the rest.
Tomato sauce has been used as an alternative for creating an illusion of blood in science projects, costumes, movies and plays. Keep in mind that like real blood, ketchup leaves behind stains.
6. Long-lasting Ice Packs
The ketchup comes in different packing shapes such as bottles, containers and sachets. The sauce sachets held out in restaurants and fast food centres can turn into ice packs once put in a freezer.
Due to their chemical properties, they turn into mini ice packs really quick. Apply these packets to heal your wounds without the worry of ice melting.
7. Say Bye-bye To Skunk Smell
Most of the people prefer ketchup to get rid of the skunk smell. Although few people tend to find it nasty, taking a fresh bath in some delicious tomato sauce can relieve you from that skunk odour. Let the sauce soak in and perform its magic before washing it off.
8. Reuse! Recycle!
After you’ve used up your ketchup for shining, polishing and consuming don’t throw away the empty bottles. These bottles come in handy for decorative purposes.
Fill these fancy bottles with layers of grains, pulses, and some oil to preserve the freshness. This creates a vibrant look in your living room, leaving your guests awe-struck with your DIY ideas.
9. The Sweetener In Cooking
This quirky hack will leave your kids and guests finger-licking. Small amounts of ketchup in your spicy curry will act as a sweetener and restore the taste of the food.
One can also use the tomato sauce to marinade meats like steaks and chicken to leave behind a savoury taste. The marinade blend can be made up by mixing ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, and a few other ingredients.
10. Homemade Face Scrub
Tomatoes usually act as an astringent and help you brighten your face. The citrus acids in tomatoes help your skin block pores and reduce pimples. The ketchup containing these healing properties of tomatoes mixed with artificial sugar can be used as a face scrub.
You will also notice that your skin is softened after washing it up. This hack allows you to make your own scrub without rushing to the parlour for a glow-up.
11. Helps in Preventing Cancer
Fun fact: Back in 1800s ketchup was initially used for medicinal purposes. It has been proven that ketchup contains lycopene that imparts the red colour to it.
This chemical cut the risk of cancer by as much as 34% if consumed recurrently. But it is advisable to consume only required amounts as suggested by your dietician.
12. As a Shaving Cream
Ketchup is your go-to element if you’ve run out of shaving cream. This safe and effective alternative can be used to shave any parts of your body that you would use a traditional shaving cream for. Ketchup serves as a short-term shaving solution for any last-minute situations.
13. Soothes Insect Bites
Although mosquito bites are inevitable how much ever protective you are, you can at least try to soothe your skin with some ketchup. By applying minimal amounts of sauce on your skin, you can reduce soreness and itchiness caused from insects like bees and spiders as well.
14. Tarnish Your Vehicle Parts
In context to shining your silverware, one can clean the tarnish from your car parts as well. Ketchup can shine up your alloys and add a gleam to car metals. Occasionally polish your vehicle’s rims with some ketchup to maintain the shine.
15. Restore the Chlorine-damaged Hair
Last but not the least, ketchup can be used to repair the lost green colour highlights from chlorinated swimming pools. Wash your hair with some fresh ketchup and soak in it for about 20 minutes to get a lustrous texture with colour restored.
Try these user-friendly ketchup hacks to pump up your household skills without further ado.
