They also brought on Gorton’s, best known for their frozen fish sticks, to create a batter for the fried chicken that could be reproduced en masse. McDonald’s then hired Keystone Foods, a maker of frozen hamburgers, to automate the chicken-chopping process. A chicken pot pie concept was developed-and rejected. Arend produced a fried chicken breast in sauce that was well received in the main corporate office but could not be reproduced on the massive scale needed by McDonald’s franchises. McDonald’s hired chef Rene Arend, who had cooked for Queen Elizabeth II of England, to create it. McDonald’s Chairman Fred Turner zeroed in on what that product should be: “a boneless piece of chicken,” sold “almost like French fries.” They were inspired by owner Ray Kroc’s determination to develop a new menu item that appealed to the American desire for a convenient alternative to red meat. McDonald’s debuted Chicken McNuggets in select markets in 1981. Pictured (L-R): Nick Rodd, Souathan Finshaw, Garry Grace. Launching McDonalds Fried Chicken Nuggets, mid-1980s. The timing was right for a new star to be born. “Instead, they began to eat more and more processed chicken, which is often less healthy.”Īmerica’s fast-food chains saw sales of their signature product-hamburgers-drop. “Had Americans simply eaten chicken in its unprocessed form, they no doubt would have experienced some health benefit from switching away from red meat,” says Striffler. Ironically, the government’s dietary guidance arrived just as poultry was becoming increasingly mass-produced and processed. Chicken, she says, was marketed as a healthier alternative to beef. Ashley Rose Young, citing a drop in beef consumption over concerns about higher cholesterol, heart disease and a shorter lifespan. “Americans started to have a fear of fat and fatty products like beef, milk and butter,” says Smithsonian food historian Dr. In 1977, Congress released “ Dietary Goals for the United States,” urging Americans to eat less red meat in favor of lean protein like poultry. But it would take a new health trend for Americans to truly embrace the chicken nugget. Instead, he mailed the recipe to hundreds of American companies that would later profit from his invention. His “chicken sticks” earned him the nickname the “ George Washington Carver of chicken.”īaker did not patent chicken nuggets. Hence, further processing.”īaker’s innovation was to mold boneless bite-size morsels from ground, skinless chicken (often from the little-used parts of the bird), and encase them in a breading perfectly engineered to solve two key problems: It stayed put through both frying and freezing, critical for mass production and transportation. “Industry leaders quickly realized that real profit would not so much come from producing more chicken, but by doing more to chicken. Baker was both a product of changes going on in the poultry world and a driver of those changes,” says Striffler. They were among dozens of poultry products he developed during his career, including turkey ham and chicken hot dogs, helping to greatly expand the U.S. Baker invented chicken nuggets in a laboratory at Cornell University in 1963. Though the origin of chicken nuggets, like so many food items, remains disputed, it’s commonly accepted that agricultural scientist Robert C. It would take a new invention to reinvigorate the American appetite for chicken. Preparing whole roasts was a time-consuming task for women increasingly entering the workforce. The birds were too small to feed all those postwar growing families, but too large for one person. Red meat was no longer scarce, and chicken had a portion problem: At the time, most were sold whole. When the war ended, poultry demand dropped. “The army’s requisitions provided a crucial opening for southern and midwestern producers to gain inroads in lucrative Eastern markets.” Ashton Merck, history instructor at Duke University. Late in the war, the military came for chicken, too: “In the spring of 1945, the War Food Administration requisitioned almost 100 percent of the production in the Delmarva peninsula (spanning Delaware, Maryland and Virginia), a major poultry-producing area,” says Dr. The massive chicken demand incentivized businesses to produce the birds more cheaply, says anthropologist Steve Striffler, author of Chicken: The Dangerous Transformation of America’s Favorite Food: “World War II encouraged the spread, modernization and industrialization of chicken on a much larger scale.” military commandeered red meat for soldiers, creating a beef shortage at home. During World War II, chicken became many Americans’ primary source of protein after the U.S.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |