[schmichael]

> A few years later, after a woman in Pennsylvania sent Heinz a dozen bottles of her homemade, tastier, better-looking, benzoate-free ketchup, they adopted her recipe, which was also sweet, vinegary, and thick.

This is a throwaway sentence mid article, but it makes it sound like the recipe that allowed Heinz to dominate was from an unpaid woman! Heinz had already figured out how to make ketchup shelf stable without preservatives, but I'm intrigued to know if he would have "won" without her recipe!

[Scoundreller]

Secret ingredient here must be sugar/corn-syrup. Makes a good thickener. Don’t need preservatives when your sugar concentration is high enough.

And who doesn’t love sweet?

(Acidity from vinegar helps too)