It is without doubt a discredit to society – or at any rate to English-speaking society – that the word ‘uxorious’ exists at all. Given the vows of eternal attachment and fidelity that couples exchange when they marry, it seems extraordinary that anglophones have a word that can be defined as describing someone who is excessively fond of his wife, as if there should be defined limits as to how fond one can become before it’s all getting out of hand. (It’s also revealing that no such word exists to denote someone who is excessively fond of her husband.)
As it is, humanity can be thankful that Gloucestershire-born Alfred Bird not only loved his wife with a passion but also had the wherewithal to improve her life in two very particular areas. The couple lived in Birmingham, where Alfred opened a pharmacy. His wife, Elizabeth, suffered from not one food allergy but two, which was an impressive feat so long before such ailments became de rigueur. For a start, she was allergic to eggs, which meant that, among other foodstuffs, she could not eat custard.
Alfred solved the difficulty in 1837 by discovering that cornflour made a perfectly acceptable – if somewhat unlikely – substitute for eggs. He and Elizabeth were the only consumers of his new egg-less custard for some time until they happened to serve the sweet sauce to their friends at a dinner party. Such was the positive reception that Alfred got it into his head to market the product. Alfred Bird and Sons Ltd was established and his egg-free custard powder proved a big hit with customers.
Once Alfred had dealt with the difficulty over custard, he turned all his attention to his wife’s other digestive problem: she could not tolerate yeast, which meant that a great many products from the bakery were anathema to her.
Alfred went to work again in an attempt to rectify the situation. It took him several years but eventually, in 1843, when he was still just in his early thirties, he successfully developed a yeast substitute – what we know today as baking powder but which he initially named ‘fermenting powder’. Bird’s formula was very similar to today’s baking powders, which are typically a mixture of sodium bicarbonate and weak acid salts such as mono-calcium phosphate and sodium aluminium sulphate or cream of tartar. When in contact with water, the bicarbonate and the acids react, causing the baking powder to replicate the action of yeast by releasing bubbles of carbon dioxide into whatever substance it’s added to (typically dough or batter), thus causing it to expand. Corn starch or potato starch is also added as a preservative, keeping the powder dry until use.
If Elizabeth had not agreed to marry Alfred and he had gone on to live a life of bachelorhood or had contracted nuptials with a woman whose stomach was not averse to yeast or eggs, the world might well be without both baking powder and custard powder and be all the worse for it. The countless delicious recipes that call for baking powder would be lost to us, and custard would be a treat only served when whoever was preparing the pudding could be bothered to whip one up from eggs, milk and sugar.
It’s also worth noting that the Birds’ son, also called Alfred, took over the business from his father. He went on to create egg-substitute powder, blancmange powder and jelly powder. Although Alfred Jr’s three substances were nowhere near as ground-breaking as his father’s innovations, they have doubtless brought joy to some quarter or other, the first being particularly useful to vegans.