Tuesday, March 02, 2010

"'Swill milk' scandals"

An appealing story at the Times on the newfound popularity of condensed milk:
Sweetened condensed milk came on the United States market in 1856, the brainchild of Gail Borden, a chronic culinary inventor. (He had already patented a prototype of a complete nutrition bar, which he called a “meat biscuit.”) Mr. Borden began experimenting with sterilized milk after a series of “swill milk” scandals that revealed the true contents of much of the milk then for sale in American cities: chalk powder, molasses and vermin.

1 comment:

  1. Hey Jenny - These kinds of 19th-century food innovations are partly the subject of a piece of mine about old food trademarks in Print magazine recently:

    http://printmag.com/Article/Trademarked-in-Trieste

    The visuals on that page aren't so hot, there's more and better pictures here:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathandtaylor/sets/72157614614841561/

    Thought you might appreciate!

    cheers - J

    ReplyDelete