Michigan’s Favorite Sauce Is Ketchup?

Wait. What?

Is ketchup even a sauce? I'm confused. Isn't it a condiment? What is happening?

Google Analytics is a strange place. It stores all sorts of information, but it provides an incomplete picture as to who we really are. Or maybe we are a State that thinks ketchup is a sauce. I don't even know who I am right now.

The goofy web site Zippia, who has WAY too much free time,  looked at the sauce or condiment each state googles more than other states.  The people behind this say "salsa" would have made the cut, but they consider it a "dip," not a "sauce." Even though THE WORD SALSA MEANS SAUCE IN SPANISH!!!!!

Why are you yelling, Jojo?

Oh, I don't know. Perhaps I need some time off from the internet.

By the way, although ketchup is really a condiment, not a sauce, most condiments were allowed as sauce substitutes, except for mustard. And now I'm really puzzled.

Here's a brief rundown of the results:

1.  Ketchup, 24 states are obsessed.  Especially in the Midwest and Northeast.

2.  Barbecue sauce, five states:  And four of them border each other:  North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.  The fifth state is Delaware.

3.  Tomato or spaghetti sauce, five states:  Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Washington.  (We assume that also includes marinara, but at this point, all bets are off because we've entered an alternate reality.)

4.  Four states are covering everything in gravy:  Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, and Oklahoma.

5.  Two states chose WORCESTERSHIRE sauce:  Arkansas and Nevada. And tartar sauce got two states:  Alaska and Montana.

6.  And eight condiments got one state each:  Cocktail sauce in Rhode Island . . . mayonnaise in Hawaii . . . vinaigrette (now I'm really weirded out because that is NOT a sauce, but a salad dressing) in New Mexico . . . relish in Maine (which prompted me to Google "is relish a sauce which resulted in this confusing answer). . . Tabasco in Louisiana . . . Sriracha in Vermont . . . ranch dressing in South Dakota . . . and fry sauce in Utah, which is half ketchup, half mayo.