Treacle tart with a dollop of custard, served up by The Blue Vinny in Puddletown, near Dorchester in Dorset.
MRS Alfred Bird’s favourite dessert was baked custard, made by beating together sugar, milk, and eggs. Unfortunately, Mrs Bird could not tolerate eggs.
So in 1837, using cornflour, vanilla and natural colouring from his Chemist’s shop in Bull Street, Birmingham, Alfred concocted an egg-free custard for his wife.
It was so believable that the Birds mistakenly served it up to their guests.
Emboldened by its enthusiastic reception, Alfred began mass-marketing his custard in 1843, and the British public now gets through 235 million pints of it every year.
As Mrs Bird was also sensitive to yeast, Alfred came up with an equally ingenious form of baking soda. It gave such superior results in yeast-free bread and cakes that the War Department became an early customer, and most modern baking powders are essentially the same.
And it was all done by an obscure pharmacist with no thought of profit to anyone but his wife.
Précis
The wife of Alfred Bird, a Victorian pharmacist from Birmingham, liked egg custard but could not eat eggs. So Alfred used his specialist knowledge to make an egg-free custard powder, and, as his wife was also affected by yeast, a new baking powder for bread and cakes. Both products remain at the heart of British cuisine to this day. (59 / 60 words)
