There’s more to everything. More than you might expect, I’ll tell you.
Take a simple can of condensed milk, for example. We’ve all used it, at some time in our lives. That crazy dessert idea. But a lot went into that can of condensed.
It is, of course, cow’s milk. So we know the cow had a lot to do with the process. That milk inside the can had its water removed, roughly 60%. It is most often found with sugar added and given the official name, sweetened condensed milk (SCM). When it comes in the can, it can last for years without refrigeration if it goes unopened.
It has a cousin. Evaporated milk. No sugar added there, and it has to undergo a much lengthier preservation process because it is not sweetened.
Either way, it has been around for a while. Marco Polo wrote home about it. In the thirteenth century, the Tatars (the people who lived mainly in west-central Russia around the Volga River) were able to condense milk. Marco Polo reported that each of those traveling Tatar men carried ten pounds of milk paste. Then, they subsequently mixed the product with water. Milk on the go. Way back when.
In more recent times, Nicolas Appert condensed milk in France in 1820. It took the U.S. a few decades to catch up, when Gail Borden, Jr., made condensed milk here. That was in 1853. By 1856, he received a patent for his process, on this very date, November 14.
They did this out of necessity. Milk couldn’t be stored for very long at all, back then. No refrigeration. We had to keep our cows very near to have a drink of milk. It gave a whole new meaning to the dairy section.
Gail Borden was on a ship, returning from a trip to England in 1851. He was devastated when several children died, apparently from shoddy milk obtained from shipboard cows.
So he came back to the U.S. and started work. There were a lot of failures in the process. But, the light finally shown on him when he saw the “vacuum pan” that was being used by Shakers to condense fruit juice. Borden figured out a way to reduce milk without scorching or curdling it.
Eventually, he built a factory in Wassaic, New York, with his partner Jeremiah Milbank. And condensed milk was on its way.
But Borden took his milk seriously. He had milk production requirements, called” the “Dairyman’s Ten Commandments” for farmers who wanted to sell him raw milk. How’s that for a burning bush? Those farmers were required to wash the cows’ udders before milking, keep barns swept clean, and scald and dry their strainers morning and night. I don’t know what the other commandments were, but it might have had something to do with being in the dell. Hi Ho. The Dairy, Oh.
By 1858, Borden’s milk, sold as Eagle Brand, had gained a reputation for “purity, durability, and economy.” His business took off, like crazy, and he opened a huge plant in Brewster, New York. By 1964, this demand increased with the Civil War.
The U.S. government put in huge orders for cans of the condensed milk. They used it as a field ration for Union soldiers during the war. One can provided 1300 calories for the soldier and many other nutrients. And it was yummers. Soldiers returning home from the war soon spread the word, and by the late 1860s, condensed milk was a major product.
So, that is the early goings of things for condensed milk, and it all began here on this date, November 14. Who could have guessed that so much went into a can of milk?
Yes. This is true of everything. Every single piece of this world, and every person in it, has a story inside. Something much richer and deeper than what is on the label. And somehow, it connects with everything else.
And that, is legend-dairy.
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“The cause is hidden. The effect is visible to all.”
― Ovid
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“Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved
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“Whoever thought a tiny candy bar should be called fun size was a moron.”
― Glenn Beck
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Wash your udders, says the first commandment.
