Birdseye's Fantastic Machine

Birdseye had discovered the principle for food preservation, but there were problems to solve before quick frozen foods could be prepared and marketed.  Each food was frozen or defrosted differently depending on the cell structure.  The precise temperature needed to be discovered to retain texture, taste and quality.  Birdseye needed to invent his own machine to quick freeze because mere refrigeration principles were not enough.

Cold storage and household refrigeration had generally depended on drawing heat out of the food by cold air.  This process, however, was not fast enough for quick freezing,  Birdseye's invention froze food by conduction - by pushing thin food particles through metal plates at 25 degrees below zero.  The temperature and freezing time needed to be closely controlled.

Birdseye's process was first applied to seafood to which it worked well.  The ocean catch could be quick frozen as soon as it was lifted aboard the boat.  Later it was found that the frozen food could be pre-cooked and sold ready-to-eat. 

We can thank Clarence for the freezer department on our refrigerators!   Deep freeze compartments were added to home refrigerators once his frozen foods grew in variety and popularity.  By the 1940s small towns had central frozen food lockers where hunters and fishermen could store their catch year round.  By the 1950s one household in three had its own deep freezer, separate from the refrigerator and frozen foods were common place in the American diet.  By the time many of us remember the first Swanson Turkey TV Dinner, frozen foods had been around for almost a hundred years already!

Next time...Traveling in Luxury
_____________________
Today in Pioneer History:  "On November 25, 1963, the funeral of President John F. Kennedy was concluded with burial in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.  Many of us watched the three days of coverage on TV, the first media coverage on such a large scale, 40 years before 9/11.  Later Jackie Kennedy had the "eternal flame" placed at his grave, which still burns almost 50 years later.

Science Meets Food Storage

When every American household had it own refrigerator, most thought that there was little more to improve on with year-round nutrition.  Refrigerated food kept longer and what couldn't be kept cool, could be canned.  What came next saved more storage, improved taste and increased the nutritious value of foods.

Clarence Birdseye was a naturalist and author of books on wildlife in Gloucester, Massachusetts.  While looking for a way to preserve his fish, he discovered something so successful that people assumed the name "Birdseye" was the product instead of the man behind it.

On a winter day in 1912, the temperature was 20 degrees below zero while Birdseye was fishing in Labrador waters.  When he pulled up a fish and dropped it on the ice next to his fishing hole, he noticed that it quickly froze solid.  Once he got home and put the fish in water, the fish started swimming! 

Birdseye discovered that because the fish's cells had frozen so quickly, there were no ice crystals formed which would have caused the break down of cells and have killed the fish.  When thawed, these ice crystals would have changed not only the tissue composition, but the taste as well.

Birdseye had just discovered that the quick freezing of food is based on the chemical principle that solutions or liquid crystallize, the size of the crystals is proportionate to the length of time of crystallization.  Sounds complicated? 

It's not!...next time
________________________
Today in Pioneer History:  "On November 21, 1877, Thomas Edison announces the invention of the phonograph, a way to record and play back sound.  The phonograph is one of 1,093 patents that Edison acquired in his lifetime...Rock and Roll never forgets!!