Bird's Custard is the brand name for the original powdered, egg-free imitation

custard Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency fro ...

powder, now owned by Premier Foods. Custard powder and instant custard powder are the generic product names for similar and competing products. The product is a powder, based on cornflour, which thickens to form a custard-like sauce when mixed with milk and heated.

History

Bird's Custard was first formulated and cooked by

Alfred Bird Alfred Bird (1811 – 15 December 1878) was an English food manufacturer and chemist. He was born in Nympsfield, Gloucestershire, England in 1811Baptised 25 August 1811 in Nympsfield, Gloucester, England. Parents John and Mary. International Ge ...

in 1837 at his chemist shop in Birmingham. He developed the recipe because his wife was

allergic Allergies, also known as allergic diseases, refer a number of conditions caused by the hypersensitivity of the immune system to typically harmless substances in the environment. These diseases include hay fever, food allergies, atopic derma ...

to eggs, the key ingredient used to thicken traditional custard. The Birds continued to serve egg-based custard to dinner guests, until one evening when the egg-free custard was served instead, either by accident or design. The dessert was so well received by the other diners that Alfred Bird put the recipe into wider production. John Monkhouse (1862–1938) was a prosperous

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

businessman who co-founded Monk and Glass, which made custard powder and jelly. Glass represented his business partner Frederick Thomas Glasscock. Monk and Glass custard was made in Clerkenwell and sold in the home market, and exported to the Empire and to America. Glasscock retired when the business was acquired by its rival Bird's Custard in the early 20th century.

Usage

In some regions, such as Australia and the United Kingdom, the popularity of this type of dessert is such that it is simply known as "custard". In such cases, general usage of the word may be more likely to refer to the "Bird's" custard rather than to the traditional egg-based variety. Bird's Custard and other brands mimicking its composition are also popular in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. "Instant" versions (containing powdered milk and sugar and requiring only hot water) and ready-made custard in tins, plastic pots and cartons have also become popular.

Alfred Bird and Sons Ltd.

After he discovered his custard was popular, Bird formed Alfred Bird and Sons Ltd. in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

. By 1843, the company was also making the newly invented baking powder and, by 1844, was promoting custard powder nationally. By 1895, the company was producing

blancmange Blancmange (, from french: blanc-manger ) is a sweet dessert popular throughout Europe commonly made with milk or cream and sugar thickened with rice flour, gelatin, corn starch, or Irish moss (a source of carrageenan), and often flavoured with ...

powder, jelly powder, and egg substitute. In

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Bird's Custard was supplied to the British armed forces. The company was one of the early users of promotional items and colourful advertising campaigns. The 'three bird' logo was introduced 1929.

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

saw rationing and serious production limits. Shortly after the war, Bird's was purchased by the General Foods Corporation, which was itself taken over by

Philip Morris Phil(l)ip or Phil Morris may refer to: Companies *Altria, a conglomerate company previously known as Philip Morris Companies Inc., named after the tobacconist **Philip Morris USA, a tobacco company wholly owned by Altria Group **Philip Morris Inter ...

in the 1980s and merged into Kraft Foods. The Bird's Custard product remains as a brand. In late 2004, Kraft sold Bird's Custard and some other Kraft brands to Premier Foods, the owners . In 1958, the company acquired Monk and Glass, a rival custard powder manufacturer based in London. The original custard factory has long ceased to exist, but the larger factory Bird's opened in Gibb Street remains (production was relocated to Banbury in 1964, along with the factory gates, featuring the company logo), and has been adapted as the Custard Factory arts centre.

Ingredients

Until 2009, many Bird's products, including the instant custard powder, contained partially

hydrogenated vegetable oil Fat hydrogenation is the process of combining fat – typically liquid vegetable oils – with hydrogen, to convert some or all of the unsaturated fat into saturated fat, resulting in a solid or semi-solid fat. Changing the degree of saturation ...

, a product now banned in some countries due to health concerns relating to heart disease. Since then, all Bird's custards have moved to unhydrogenated vegetable oil.

Physical properties

Cooked custard is a weak

gel A gel is a semi-solid that can have properties ranging from soft and weak to hard and tough. Gels are defined as a substantially dilute cross-linked system, which exhibits no flow when in the steady-state, although the liquid phase may still di ...

, viscous and thixotropic. A suspension of ''uncooked'' custard powder (

starch Starch or amylum is a polymeric carbohydrate consisting of numerous glucose units joined by glycosidic bonds. This polysaccharide is produced by most green plants for energy storage. Worldwide, it is the most common carbohydrate in human diets ...

) in water, with the proper proportions, has the opposite rheological property: it is negative thixotropic, or dilatant, which is to say that it becomes more

viscous The viscosity of a fluid is a measure of its resistance to deformation at a given rate. For liquids, it corresponds to the informal concept of "thickness": for example, syrup has a higher viscosity than water. Viscosity quantifies the inter ...

when under pressure. This suspension is sometimes termed oobleck and often used in science demonstrations of non-Newtonian fluids. The popular-science programme '' Brainiac: Science Abuse'' demonstrated dilatancy dramatically by filling a swimming pool with this mixture and having presenter

Jon Tickle Jonathan Parmer Tickle (born 8 May 1974) is a British television presenter who initially rose to fame as a contestant on the fourth series of the British television show '' Big Brother''. He appeared before this, however, as a contestant on th ...

walk across it.

References

External links

* {{Instant foods Brand name desserts British desserts Companies based in Birmingham, West Midlands Custard desserts English inventions Imitation foods Premier Foods brands Instant foods and drinks