RVA Legends — Good Luck! Part 1

Here’s a local story about bread, chemistry, and Industrial America.

(Public Domain Pictures)

Most everyone likes bread, even folks with gluten allergies. It’s used in countless popular foodstuffs, from bagels to pizza, and it’s got nutritional value in the form of vitamins and minerals. Plus it smells really good when it’s baking.

(Sphust)

But in Colonial and Industrial America, making bread was a chore. Most bread was made with yeast, which was itself, a problem. If you wanted yeast, you either made it yourself at home (which could vary in strength), or if you lived near a brewery, you could use brewer’s yeast (which made for denser bread).

Whichever you chose, making bread with yeast took time for the dough to rise, sometimes overnight, so it was an activity that required planning ahead.

(LOC) – Cover, American Cookery by Amelia Simmons, 1796

There were ways to speed up the process. The first cookbook written by an American, American Cookery, described using potash as a leavening agent, made by soaking plant ashes in water. With potash, you could make “lightning bread”, and skip the rise time.

The problem with alternative agents was that they could add unwelcome tastes to the end product, so you had to be careful. Baking powder fell in this category; it was complicated to make, and did not always yield predictable results.

(Months of Edible Celebrations)

All that changed in 1869, when Harvard chemist Eben Horton Horsford perfected a reliable formula for baking powder. Take a little baking soda, add some Cream of Tatar, a bit of starch, and voilà – magic, fast-rising goodness in a can.

He and his partner, George F. Wilson, had founded Rumford Chemical Works in 1859, and it was there that the mass production of baking powder began.

(Rocket Werks RVA Postcards)

Industrial secrets can be among the most fleeting, and it wasn’t long before competitors introduced other brands to the marketplace. One of these was Southern Manufacturing Company, located right here in Richmond, Virginia.

(continued in Part 2)

RVA Legends is a regular series
appearing on rocket werks – check it out!