This touching piece of social history is by Nicholas Kurti, FRS, Emeritus Professor of Physics at Oxford.

It is widely believed that Bird’s custard is one of the earliest examples of ‘convenience foods’ or of regrettable substitutes designed purely to reduce the cost and the time of preparation of a dish. Nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, the invention of Bird’s custard is a shining example of alleviating a deprivation caused by cruel nature.

Alfred Bird, whose father taught astronomy at Eton, was born in 1811 in Birmingham and in 1837 established himself as an analytical and retail pharmaceutical chemist there. When he married Elizabeth Lavinia Ragg he faced a challenge which was to influence his career. His young wife suffered from a digestive disorder which prevented her from eating anything prepared with eggs or with yeast. But Elizabeth Lavinia was apparently yearning for custard to go with her favourite fruit pies so Alfred Bird started experimenting in his shop. The result was the custard powder bearing his name and based on cornflour, which when mixed with milk produced, after heating, a sauce reminiscent in appearance, taste and consistency of a genuine egg-and-milk custard sauce.

The young wife was overjoyed and this substitute custard became the normal accompaniment to puddings at the Birds’ dinner table, though, when they entertained, genuine custard sauce was offered to their guests. Then came an occasion when, whether by accident or by design, ‘Bird’s custard’ was served and Alfred must have been gratified to hear his guests declare that it was the best custard they had ever tasted!

This then was the beginning of the firm Alfred Bird and Sons Ltd of Birmingham which for 120 years remained a family business, first under the chairmanship of the founder, then of his son, Sir Alfred Bird Bt and then of his grandson Sir Robert Bird Bt. While the firm’s main product remained custard powder Alfred Bird’s other invention to circumvent his wife’s digestive troubles, namely baking powder, was also manufactured and was used during the Crimean war so that British troops could be given fresh, palatable bread.

Alfred Bird was a Fellow of the Chemical Society and, a few months after his death on 2 December 1878, a brief obituary was published in the Journal of the Chemical Society, Vol. 35, p. 206, 1879. It described at some length Bird’s interest in physics and meteorology, thus: ‘He constructed a beautiful set of harmonized glass bowls extending over 5 octaves which he used to play with much skill’; and ‘in 1859 he constructed a water barometer with which he was fond of observing and showing to others the minute oscillations of the atmospheric pressure’. But of Bird’s Custard Powder – not a word!