Book of Days Tales

Today is the birthday (1886) of Clarence Frank Birdseye, U.S. inventor, entrepreneur, and naturalist, and the founder of the modern frozen food industry.  Birdseye worked off and on from 1912 to 1915 in Labrador in the Dominion of Newfoundland (now part of Canada), where he became interested in food preservation by freezing, especially fast freezing. He was taught by the Inuit how to ice fish under very thick ice. In -40°C weather, he discovered that the fish he caught froze almost instantly, and, when thawed, tasted fresh. He recognized immediately that the frozen seafood sold in New York was of lower quality than the frozen fish of Labrador, and saw that applying this knowledge would be lucrative and therefore founded a company selling frozen fish.

In 1929, Birdseye sold his company and patents for $22 million to Goldman Sachs and the Postum Company, which eventually became General Foods Corporation, and which founded the Birds Eye Frozen Food Company. Birdseye continued to work with the company, further developing frozen food technology. In 1930 the company began sales experiments in 18 retail stores around Springfield, Massachusetts, to test consumer acceptance of quick-frozen foods. The initial product line featured 26 items, including 18 cuts of frozen meat, spinach and peas, a variety of fruits and berries, blue point oysters, and fish fillets. Consumers liked the new products and today this move is considered the birth of retail frozen foods. The “Birds Eye” name remains a leading frozen-food brand.

The Birds Eye company maintains a website with a number of recipes: https://www.birdseye.com/recipes  Here is a version of Italian frittata from the site:

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

¼ cup finely chopped onion

8 eggs, beaten

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 bag (12 oz) Steamfresh® Broccoli Cuts, cooked according to package directions

1 plum tomato, chopped and drained on paper towel

Cooking Instructions

1. Heat olive oil in a 10-inch oven-proof nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and cook onion, stirring occasionally, 3 minutes or until starting to brown.
2. Reduce heat to low and stir in eggs and black pepper. Sprinkle with prepared Broccoli Cuts and tomato. Cook covered, occasionally lifting set edges of egg mixture with spatula and tilting pan to allow uncooked mixture to flow to bottom, until eggs are set and bottom is slightly golden, about 6 to 7 minutes.
3. Broil, if desired, until eggs are bubbling and starting to brown, about 1 minute.