Clarence Birdsey proved that you can’t judge a book by its cover.
The Brooklyn native and frozen food pioneer looked scholastic in his glasses as if he were the head of a college lecture hall.
He was actually a college dropout. And instead of lecturing scholars, he lived a life of adventure in the remotest parts of the world, from the cold coast of Newfoundland to the steamy sugarcane plantations of South America.
He longed to hang out and loved to hunt.
Birdseye, among many other quirks, had a strong appetite to harvest and eat anything, walk, chirp, crawl, swim or slide.
In his years of exploring Labrador, Canada, or working for the US government in the American West, he trapped and cooked rats, chipmunks, porcupines, otters, and rattlesnakes, to name some of his unusual foods.
He raved about the “fine” taste of sherry-brined links and gull gravy.
Birdseye ate anything that walked, spun, chirped, crawled, swam, or slid.
“I arrived in the North West River by dog team,” he wrote in one particularly enthusiastic account of his carnivorous Canadian diet.
“And after we walked out, I sat down to one of the most sumptuous meals I had ever had. The pice de résistance was the meat of the Lynx, which was soaked for a month in sherry, pan-stewed, and served in brown gravy. was.'”
Birdseye’s keen taste buds changed the way Americans shop, eat, and even plan for disaster.
He founded Birdseye Seafood Inc. in 1924. Founded, pioneered and patented new ways to both flash-freeze and market food to American consumers.
There’s a Good Chance You Have Frozen Vegetables Too His name is in your freezer right now.
Bird’s Eye – two words – is a major label in the frozen food aisle of American and British supermarkets, which is today owned by international powerhouse Conagra Brands.
The appeal of frozen foods became apparent in 2020 during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic when consumers stockpiled food for an unknown number of days.
“This category stands at $65.1 billion in retail sales,” the American Frozen Food Institute reported last year, representing an incredible 21% increase on sales in 2019.
‘Strange Man’
Clarence “Bob” Birdsey was born in Brooklyn, NY on December 9, 1886, to attorneys Clarence Frank and Ada Underwood Birdsey.
His family moved to Montclair, NJ when he was a teenager. There high school cooking classes fueled his innate interest in food.
Frozen food was worth $65.1 billion in retail sales in 2020 – an incredible 21% increase compared to 2019 sales.
“At the age of 10 he was hunting and exporting live oysters and teaching himself taxidermy,” NPR wrote in a 2012 biography.
“He studied science in college, but had to drop out due to financial reasons. Forced to support himself, he became involved in various scientific expeditions that took him to remote places, including Labrador, where he spent many years in the fur business. ,
Mark Kurlansky, noted food historian and Birdseye biographer, also told Fox News Digital, “He was a weird kind of guy who had an influence on a lot of different things, including a lot of influence on American food.”
“He was a product of the Industrial Revolution and thought that everything, including food, should be industrialized.”
The author was inspired to write about Clarence Birdsey when the inventor made a frequent appearance in many of Kurlansky’s other works, including his historical food history, “Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World”.
Kurlansky wrote two books about him: “Birdsay: The Adventures of a Curious Man” in 2013; and, for middle-schoolers, “Frozen in Time: Clarence Bird’s Outrageous Idea About Frozen Food” in 2014.
Yet Birdseye’s interests and inventions extend far beyond food, Kurlansky said.
“Birdsey was a product of the Industrial Revolution and thought that everything, including food, should be industrialized.” — author Mark Kurlansky
He patented the reflector lamps commonly used on job sites today. He helped the federal government tackle Rocky Mountain spotted fever, showing that it was transmitted to humans through animals. Later in life, he also found a new adventure in Colombia, developing a process for turning cane residue into paper.
Birdsey developed about 300 patents and inventions during his lifetime, Kurlansky said.
No one had a greater impact on the country but more than his work in frozen food.
Inuits. Inspired by
Birdseye’s eureka moment came during his dog-sled expeditions to Labrador.
He observed that native Inuit fishermen used the power of wind and ice to flash-freeze their catches.
“Fresh food was a much-needed problem in Labrador,” Birdsey wrote in a recurring account of his work.
“I found that foods frozen very quickly in the dead of winter retain their freshness as long as they are kept at a low temperature.”
The secret was to replicate the flash-freezing process off the icy shores of Canada’s coast.
“Birdsey, the biologist, noticed that the fish were frozen too quickly to form ice crystals and ruin their cellular structure,” writes the Lemelson-MIT Program, an academic organization dedicated to cultivating inventors and innovators.
“Birdsay, the merchant, observed that people back home would happily pay for such frozen foods if he could deliver them. He returned to New York and in 1924, Birdseye Seafoods, Inc. established.
He founded the business, now General Seafood Corp., a year later in Gloucester, Mass., to be near one of the country’s most prominent and productive fishing ports.
He developed a process that would freeze fish and vegetables faster.
“In the case of fish or meat,” the application states, “slow freezing disrupts the cells of animal tissue, with loss of primitive properties and flavours, and rapid degradation after thawing.”
However, his rapid freezing process ensured that “the product’s pristine properties and flavor were retained,” as he wrote on a 1927 patent application.
Chance Encounter changed the food industry
He was desperately short of capital, however, when a chance encounter with business tycoon Marjorie Merriweather Post changed his fortunes.
The encounter changed the global food industry.
Birdseye’s patented flash-freezing process ensured “the product’s pristine qualities and flavor are retained.”
Postum had inherited the Postum Grain Company from his father in 1914. It is known today as General Foods. She was a very influential businessman.
Among other notable achievements, Post built a mansion in Palm Beach, Fla., in the 1920s, which he dubbed Mar-a-Lago.
The Post came sailing through Gloucester in 1926 when he discovered Birdseye’s Frozen Food Company, at least according to company legend.
The 1929 deal gave Birdseye the necessary resources to bring frozen food to the American consumer.
The details of the story are sketchy, writes Kurlansky in “Frozen in Time”.
What is not disputed is the result: Birdseye’s “company had a clear appeal to the Postum Cereal Company. General Seafoods had developed the idea and technology for an entirely new food industry,” the authors write.
“Finally, postum safe [Birdseye’s] company for a record $22 million.”
The 1929 deal gave Birdseye the necessary resources to bring frozen food to the American consumer.
Birdseye improved the health of the industrialized world
Clarence Birdsey died on October 7, 1956, in a house kept at the Gramercy Park Hotel in Manhattan.
He spent his last days following a life of adventure and novelty, battling a heart ailment in the city where he was born.
“We can say that Clarence Birdsey has indirectly improved both the health and convenience of almost everyone in the industrialized world”
He was lauded for his vision and ability to turn his ideas on the ice of Labrador into an international food-industry empire.
“In the beginning, he could only spend $7 on equipment including electric fans, ice and salt.
Later, a friend lent her the corner of an ice house to continue her work,” The New York Times wrote in her obituary.
“After His Return” [from Labrador]Mr. Birdsey begins the experiment that led to his development [flash-freezing] process. The development not only brought a fortune to Mr. Birdsey but helped revive the Massachusetts fishing industry.
Frozen food is a Goliath of global consumer culture today, with revenues of $252.2 billion in 2021, Polaris Market Research reported in June.
The research company forecasts global frozen food sales to reach $389.9 billion by 2030.
Birdsey is credited with “increasing the quality of the American diet by providing high-quality foods for long-term preservation without drying, pickling or canning,” declares the Inventors Hall of Fame, which inducted the innovator in 2005. did.
“Today, we particularly appreciate that Birdseye’s process, which is still in use originally, preserves a food’s nutrients as well as its flavor,” said the lead author of the Lemelson-MIT Program for Innovators. announces.
“Indeed, we can say that Clarence Birdsey has indirectly improved both the health and convenience of almost everyone in the industrialized world.”