"'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.
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:
ReplyDeletehttp://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