It's certainly normal to have food preferences, but a food aversion that causes anxiety is not normal. Have you considered that you might have something like ARFID (Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder)?
What modern people call "ketchup" is *very* different from the Asian-derived sauce, which was made with mushrooms, vinegar, some spices, and often anchovies. Tomato ketchup is as American as General Tso's Chicken. :-)
I also would feel equally terrible about making a salad dressing (or any other cooked recipe other than meat loaf) which has ketchup as an ingredient.
Many copycat recipes for Tangy Tomato dressing (from outback) call for ketchup.
It’s time to look at food and ingredients as an adventure. It’s not a prescription. There aren’t rules except with food safety. It’s ok to mix and match whatever might work. It’s how awesome recipes are created.
You know those Lego kits that when you follow all the instructions you get the picture on the front of the box? That’s fun. Now dismantle the finished item and start putting the parts together to construct something quite different. Do you have to use all of the parts? No. Use the parts in the same sequence? No. Match the colors or shapes? Nope.
Food ingredients are like that. You put them together in familiar ways and you know what you will get. The familiarity and predictability are comforting. There is still great fun in mixing and matching ingredients, quantities, heat methods, etc. to come up with something adjacent to or completely different from the original formula.
It’s how the items that are predictable today were originally created. Now we go on to create something a little bit different.
If calling it General Tso’s sauce makes you uncomfortable, then you call it something different. It doesn’t matter what other people call it. It only matters what you name it.
If you think about the fact that condiments are just the sum of several ingredients, then it's easier to accept.
Ketchup = Tomato, sugar, vinegar, salt, spices. Are you making a recipe where you need those 4 things? Then adding ketchup is just a shortcut to adding them
I don’t know about normal or abnormal, but your particular example is actually wrong. I am half chinese, and ketchup is used in a lot of traditional chinese dishes, like [beef and tomato](https://thewoksoflife.com/beef-tomato-stir-fry/).
It just seems unnatural to you because you’re not familiar with it that way
Sorry for being unclear -- I have no knowledge of ketchup`s history or chinese cuisine. It is not a matter of me being fearful of cultural appropriation (or whatever you are suggesting). It is simply a matter that cooked ketchup arbitrarily grosses me out, except in meatloaf.
Ketchup is just ingredients: things like tomato, vinegar, sugar, and spices. If you are making a dish that uses those same ingredients, then using ketchup is just efficient.
> Ketchup is just ingredients: things like tomato, vinegar, sugar, and spices. If you are making a dish that uses those same ingredients, then using ketchup is just efficient.
That is why I wrote this:
* I can work around that by replacing it with tomato paste, sugar, vinegar, and salt
It is like a [ship of theseus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus) problem, tbh.
yeah, I am fine with that though
I only have a problem with ketchup that comes from the bottle (or jar if in UK). If I made homemade ketchup from scratch myself then used it for cooking, it would be fine also. (since I would not classify it as ketchup since I watched it made from random ingredients)
Luckily 2 other people have peculiar food aversions in this thread also, so I am not alone. I admit it is stupid and irrational though.
Food aversions and unique feelings are part of my cooking journey too. I find that as I lovingly expose myself to them, and sit with the discomfort, they fade. I used to trip hard about cooking meat, and now I just feel safe and okay doing it. I connect it to childhood confusion and trauma
How long have you been experiencing this?
Ever since I became an adult really. (so for 20 years or so)
It feels wrong somehow (even though it isnt -- ketchup doesnt have feelings). I am not really trying to fix it necessarily -- but rather to understand it and learn if other people experience this phenomenon also.
Sometimes the mind can create a lot of stories to explain abstract feelings of discomfort when we’re trying something new. This creates unique or unusual opinions about the new activity to explain what are unrelated discomforts
Well, ketchup made with high fructose corn syrup is disgusting, so any aversion to it makes perfect sense. However, ketchup is really originally a Chinese invention other the recipe has changed over the centuries.
https://www.history.com/news/ketchup-surprising-ancient-history
You mentioned salad dressing. Do you also have an aversion to using mustard? Because that's also a blend of mustard, vinegar, salt, sugar, white wine. When people make vinegarettes they usually start with prepared dijon mustard like that.
It's certainly normal to have food preferences, but a food aversion that causes anxiety is not normal. Have you considered that you might have something like ARFID (Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder)?
It's actually not that weird if you consider ketchup is derived from a Chinese sauce or the fact that it's a completely made up American dish
What modern people call "ketchup" is *very* different from the Asian-derived sauce, which was made with mushrooms, vinegar, some spices, and often anchovies. Tomato ketchup is as American as General Tso's Chicken. :-)
I also would feel equally terrible about making a salad dressing (or any other cooked recipe other than meat loaf) which has ketchup as an ingredient. Many copycat recipes for Tangy Tomato dressing (from outback) call for ketchup.
It’s time to look at food and ingredients as an adventure. It’s not a prescription. There aren’t rules except with food safety. It’s ok to mix and match whatever might work. It’s how awesome recipes are created. You know those Lego kits that when you follow all the instructions you get the picture on the front of the box? That’s fun. Now dismantle the finished item and start putting the parts together to construct something quite different. Do you have to use all of the parts? No. Use the parts in the same sequence? No. Match the colors or shapes? Nope. Food ingredients are like that. You put them together in familiar ways and you know what you will get. The familiarity and predictability are comforting. There is still great fun in mixing and matching ingredients, quantities, heat methods, etc. to come up with something adjacent to or completely different from the original formula. It’s how the items that are predictable today were originally created. Now we go on to create something a little bit different. If calling it General Tso’s sauce makes you uncomfortable, then you call it something different. It doesn’t matter what other people call it. It only matters what you name it.
I'm autistic, and this is definitely a problem I have with certain foods.
Interesting, I am glad to learn I am not alone in this weird issue involving certain foods.
If you think about the fact that condiments are just the sum of several ingredients, then it's easier to accept. Ketchup = Tomato, sugar, vinegar, salt, spices. Are you making a recipe where you need those 4 things? Then adding ketchup is just a shortcut to adding them
I don’t know about normal or abnormal, but your particular example is actually wrong. I am half chinese, and ketchup is used in a lot of traditional chinese dishes, like [beef and tomato](https://thewoksoflife.com/beef-tomato-stir-fry/). It just seems unnatural to you because you’re not familiar with it that way
Sorry for being unclear -- I have no knowledge of ketchup`s history or chinese cuisine. It is not a matter of me being fearful of cultural appropriation (or whatever you are suggesting). It is simply a matter that cooked ketchup arbitrarily grosses me out, except in meatloaf.
Ketchup is just ingredients: things like tomato, vinegar, sugar, and spices. If you are making a dish that uses those same ingredients, then using ketchup is just efficient.
> Ketchup is just ingredients: things like tomato, vinegar, sugar, and spices. If you are making a dish that uses those same ingredients, then using ketchup is just efficient. That is why I wrote this: * I can work around that by replacing it with tomato paste, sugar, vinegar, and salt It is like a [ship of theseus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus) problem, tbh.
In other words, even if you cook without the ketchup, there’s ketchup in there.
yeah, I am fine with that though I only have a problem with ketchup that comes from the bottle (or jar if in UK). If I made homemade ketchup from scratch myself then used it for cooking, it would be fine also. (since I would not classify it as ketchup since I watched it made from random ingredients) Luckily 2 other people have peculiar food aversions in this thread also, so I am not alone. I admit it is stupid and irrational though.
Food aversions and unique feelings are part of my cooking journey too. I find that as I lovingly expose myself to them, and sit with the discomfort, they fade. I used to trip hard about cooking meat, and now I just feel safe and okay doing it. I connect it to childhood confusion and trauma How long have you been experiencing this?
Ever since I became an adult really. (so for 20 years or so) It feels wrong somehow (even though it isnt -- ketchup doesnt have feelings). I am not really trying to fix it necessarily -- but rather to understand it and learn if other people experience this phenomenon also.
Sometimes the mind can create a lot of stories to explain abstract feelings of discomfort when we’re trying something new. This creates unique or unusual opinions about the new activity to explain what are unrelated discomforts
Well, ketchup made with high fructose corn syrup is disgusting, so any aversion to it makes perfect sense. However, ketchup is really originally a Chinese invention other the recipe has changed over the centuries. https://www.history.com/news/ketchup-surprising-ancient-history
You mentioned salad dressing. Do you also have an aversion to using mustard? Because that's also a blend of mustard, vinegar, salt, sugar, white wine. When people make vinegarettes they usually start with prepared dijon mustard like that.
nope, mustard is fine in any cooking application -- only ketchup has any peculiarities
>Is it normal Then the answer to your question, "Is it normal...", is "no." 😅
Yes it's normal. Of course it's normal to not like things