Monday 15 December 2014

To save his wife from allergies, this pharmacist invented egg-less custard & baking powder!!!


Alfred Bird (1811 – 15 December 1878) was a British food manufacturer and chemist. He was born in Nympsfield, Gloucestershire, England in 1811 and was the inventor of a series of food products mostly now taken for granted. Alfred Bird registered as a pharmacist in Birmingham in 1842, having served an apprenticeship to Phillip Harris of that city. He was a qualified chemistand druggist and went on to open an experimental chemist's shop in Bull Street.
Alfred Bird's first major invention was egg-free custard (1837). Bird was not content to revolutionize custard but went on to invent a baking powder in 1843 so he could make yeast-free bread for his wife. Baking powder is a dry chemical leavening agent, a mixture of a weak alkali and a weak acid, and is used for increasing the volume and lightening the texture of baked goods. Read more...