Ketchup is GOATed. Very well-balanced flavor wise, it contains elements of sweet, salty, sour, and savory. This is what makes it so popular and why it pairs so well with so many foods.
Of course, there are varieties and brands that are made with substandard ingredients such as HFCS. But this is an exception and not the rule; I recommend something like Simply Heinz which is made with cane sugar and has a much less cloyingly sweet flavor. There are also fancier brands if you like, but honestly I think Heinz is the gold standard.
As a Chicagoan you also won’t catch me putting it on a Chicago-style hot dog, since that has a delicate balance of flavors that is thrown off and overshadowed by the ketchup. But I’m not gonna throw a fit over anyone who does, and I will most definitely throw some ketchup and mustard on a dog that has not been dragged through the garden.
I once read an article that talked about how only an insane person makes homemade ketchup. It poisoned my mind for like more than a decade.
But then I said fuck it and I just decided to make some, and it was amazing, and now I want it on so many things and I could never ever go back to bottled.
You’ll just take tomatoes, fire some spices in there, a little bit of vinegar and cane sugar. Some people like malt vinegar, I use quarter of a drop of white wine vinegar and some lemon juice. I like to play with different heat levels and different types of peppers.