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Now that ketchup has reclaimed its position as America's best-selling condiment, an honor temporarily ceded to salsa, its back in the spotlight. Some revealing facts about this ubiquitous sauce:

1. Rate at which ketchup travels as it leaves the bottle: 25 miles per hour.

2. Technique preferred by women when using ketchup: dipping (according to a survey from Heinz).

3. Technique preferred by men when using ketchup: covering up.

4. Former U.S. president who covered up his cottage cheese with ketchup: Richard Nixon.

5. Former U.S. president who declared ketchup to be a vegetable: Ronald Reagan.

6. Approximate number of tomatoes to make a 14-ounce bottle: 25.

7. Percentage of American homes with ketchup in the kitchen: 97.

8. Sweet spot to tap on the Heinz bottle to release the ketchup faster: the 57 on the neck.

9. Average bottles of ketchup each American consumes in a year: 3.

10. Number of calories and grams of fat in a tablespoon of ketchup: 15 calories; 0 grams fat.

11. Origin of the word ketchup: Chinese (Amoy dialect) ketsiap-- pickled fish sauce.

12. U.S. region that consumes the most ketchup: the South.

13. Year that Heinz introduced its bottled ketchup: 1876.

--Lisa Lee