William Underwood Company

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The William Underwood Company, founded in 1822, was a food company most famously known for its flagship product, Underwood Deviled Ham, a canned meat spread. The company also had a key role in time-temperature research done at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) during 1895 – 6 which would lead to the development of food science and technology as a profession.

2005 version of Underwood Deviled Ham label.
2005 version of Underwood Deviled Ham label.

Contents

[edit] Founding and growth

The company was established by its founder William Underwood (1787 – 1864) in 1822 in Boston, Massachusetts[1] as a condiment company using glass packing techniques. Among the condiments and other items glass packed were mustard, ketchup, pickles, and cranberries.[1] By 1836, Underwood shifted his packing from glass to steel cans coated with tin on the inside because glassmakers in the Boston area could not keep up with product demands from the canning company.[1]

Underwood's canned foods proved valuable to settlers during the Manifest Destiny period of 1840 – 60.[1] Additionally, Underwood sold numerous canned foods to Union troops during the American Civil War of 1861 – 65.[1] The amount of products canned increased to include seafood products like lobster, oyster, and mackerel.[1] William Underwood died in 1864,[1] the same year that William Lyman Underwood, one of his three grandsons, was born. Underwood's son, William James Underwood, would head the business as new retort technology continued to be developed for use.

[edit] Involvement with MIT

A problem that would be encountered by the company from its early beginnings in 1822 to 1895 would be cans that had "swells" in them,[2] causing a great deal of product loss. William Lyman Underwood, a grandson of the founder, decided in late 1895 that he had enough of the product loss and went to MIT for assistance of this problem.[3][4]

Underwood approached William Thompson Sedgwick, the chair of the Biology department at MIT about the concerns he had with the recent product swells and explosion of cans of clams.[3] Sedgwick then summoned his assistant Samuel Cate Prescott and detailed him on the issue.[3] From late 1895 to late 1896, Prescott and Underwood worked on the problem every afternoon, focusing on canned clams.[5] They first discovered that the clams contained some heat-resistant bacterial spores that were able to survive the processing; then that these spores' presence depended on the clams' living environment; and finally that these spores would be killed if processed at 250°F (121°C) for ten minutes in a retort.[6]

These studies prompted the similar research of canned lobster, sardines, peas, tomatoes, corn, and spinach.[7] Prescott and Underwood's work was first published in late 1897.[7] This research, though important to the growth of food technology, was never patented.[8]

This research proved beneficial to the William Underwood Company, the canning industry, the food industry, and food technology itself.[9][10]

In the mid 1950s, the new president of the William Underwood Company, George Seybolt, was brought by the previous president, W. Durant, to MIT to meet Prescott.[11] At the Institute of Food Technologists Northeast Section (Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont) meeting at Watertown, Massachusetts in April 1961, the William Underwood Company dedicated a new laboratory in honor of both Prescott and William Lyman Underwood.[12] Following Prescott's death in 1962, the William Underwood Company created the Underwood Prescott Memorial Lectureship in memory of both Underwood and Prescott.[13] This Lectureship would run until 1982. In 1969, Seybolt donated USD 600,000 to MIT to create the Underwood Professorship,[13] followed up with an Underwood Prescott Professorship in 1972.[14] Three MIT faculty have held this professorship since its inception: Samuel A. Goldblith,[14] Gerald N. Wogan,[14] and since 1996, Stephen R. Tannenbaum.[15][16]

[edit] Acquisitions and sale

[edit] Expansion in 1960s

Underwood acquired the Burnham & Morrill (B&M) Company of Portland, Maine in 1965.[17] B&M had actually purchased canned clams and tomatoes from Underwood in the late 1860s for resale before producing these products on its own. Baked beans were the best known product that B&M started producing, which it started doing in the 1920s with its Brick Oven Baked Beans.[17] Piermont Foods, a food company in Montreal, Canada, was acquired in 1968[17] in order for Underwood to sell its products north of the border.

[edit] Sale of Underwood to PET

Underwood, which up to this point had been privately owned by the Underwood family, was sold to PET in 1982,[18] and B&M's Westwood, Massachusetts facility was closed. Included in this was B&M Foods as part of the sale. Thirteen years later, the Pillsbury Company acquired PET Inc.[18] and began a modernization process that included warehousing, production, and processing. B&G Foods of New York, New York acquired the Underwood foods (including Underwood's canned meat line, sardines, B&M, and Accent) in 1999[17] where they have remained since.

[edit] Deviled ham and devil logo

Illustration of can of Underwood deviled ham, 1921 advertisement.
Illustration of can of Underwood deviled ham, 1921 advertisement.
New 2008 logo from Underwood Chicken Spread.
New 2008 logo from Underwood Chicken Spread.

Deviled ham was created in 1868[1] as a mixture of ground ham with special seasonings, and deviling would also be done with other meat and seafood products. This included turkey, lobster, chicken, and even tongue. Deviling consists of adding such spices as hot sauce, cayenne pepper, Dijon mustard, or chopped hot peppers. Deviled eggs are one well-known example of this process. The devil logo was trademarked in 1870 and it is the oldest food trademark still in use in the United States.[1] The famous red devil that debuted in 1895[1] and started as a demonic figure now appears in a much friendlier version when compared to the original.

The older version, in use during the first half of the 20th century, can be seen in many old magazine advertisements, such as this advertisement from Woman's Home Companion, August 1921.[19] It lacks the pitchfork and smile of the modern version, but has long fingernails not found in the modern version. The barbed tail is in the shape of the letter W, and along with the lower-case M to the right of the devil forms the abbreviation "Wm.", for William, as in William Underwood. The lettering in the logo and on the can are also spouting small flames, reinforcing the spicy devil concept.

In 2008, B&G Foods updated the devil logo somewhat by adding color to the previously all-red image. The pitchfork is now black, and there are small amounts of yellow in the tail and horns, along with some shading which gives the logo a little bit of depth. The devil logo has appeared on Underwood products that are not deviled as part of the overall brand identity, such as sardines and chicken spread, and continues to do so.

[edit] Underwood and popular culture

Underwood deviled ham, although not one of the most well-known food products, does appear in American popular culture from time to time. By doing so, this shows that Underwood's most well-known product remains in people's minds, and beyond that these cultural references remind the consumers of these cultural products of deviled ham.

  • Marge Simpson of The Simpsons buys a can in Episode 2F21 (#623), "The Springfield Connection", where she is rebelling against her boring housewife existence. When grocery shopping, she says, "Strange, regular ham doesn't thrill me anymore. Hmmph. I'm crossing over to deviled ham."
  • In another animated series, The Oblongs, it is used in episode 7 (season 1) by the mother as cake frosting, much to her son's dismay.[20]
  • Deviled ham also plays a small role in The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, appearing in the beginning (p. 13), middle, and end, as an example of a completely inappropriate item that the family thought they would need in Africa.
  • In 2007, Food TV chef Rachel Ray and Ritz Crackers published several recipes, one of which calls for deviled ham, however Ray is making deviled ham and not using the Underwood version.
  • Underwood's TV advertisements in the 1970s featured then child-star Mason Reese, who said it tasted like a "borgasmord".[1]
  • The William Underwood Company is mentioned in the "Civil War Tech" episode (#342) of the TV series Modern Marvels, near the end of the episode during the segment on canned food.
  • Underwood deviled ham makes an appearance in the video game Pikmin 2 as a treasure item. It is only in the NTSC version.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Underwood History
  2. ^ Goldblith, S.A. (1993). Pioneers in Food Science, Volume 1: Samuel Cate Prescott - M.I.T. Dean and Pioneer Food Technologist. Trumball, CT: Food and Nutrition Press. P. 21.
  3. ^ a b c Goldblith, p. 21.
  4. ^ MIT Entrepreneurship Center - Technology Leadership
  5. ^ Goldblith, pp. 21-2.
  6. ^ Goldblith, pp. 22-3.
  7. ^ a b Goldblith, p. 22
  8. ^ Goldblith, p. 24
  9. ^ Goldblith, p. 28
  10. ^ MIT Libraries, Institute Archives and Special Collections, History of the Department of Biology
  11. ^ Goldblith, p. 125
  12. ^ Goldblith, pp. 125-6.
  13. ^ a b Goldblith, p. 128
  14. ^ a b c Goldblith, p. 130.
  15. ^ MIT Department of Biological Engineering
  16. ^ MIT Reports to the President 1996-97, Division of Toxicology
  17. ^ a b c d B&M History
  18. ^ a b B&G History at FundingUniverse
  19. ^ Woman's Home Companion. (Aug, 1921). P. 65.
  20. ^ http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Oblongs#Flush, Flush, Sweet Helga (1.7)

[edit] Further reading

Food Portal
  • Diablitos Underwood, a Venezuelan blog entry about Underwood Deviled Ham in Venezuela from the blog Cuando Era Chamo.
  • The Encyclopedia Americana. (1918). Pp. 506 - 509. Available at Google Books, http://books.google.com/books?id=kWEMAAAAYAAJ&q=underwood#search
  • Powers, J.J. "The Food Industry Contribution: Preeminence in Science and in Application." A Century of Food Science. (2000). Institute of Food Technologists: Chicago. pp. 17-18.