Frozen in Time: Clarence Birdseye's Outrageous Idea About Frozen Food

by Mark Kurlansky

Nonfiction for kids interested in science, biography, and early entrepreneurs, this work explores the life story of Clarence Birdseye, the man who revolutionized the frozen food industry and changed the way people eat all over the world. Adapted from Mark Kurlansky’s adult work The Adventures of a Curious Man.
 
Adventurer and inventor Clarence Birdseye had a fascination with food preservation that led him to develop and patent the Birdseye freezing process and start the company that still bears his name today. His limitless curiosity spurred his other inventions, including the electric sunlamp, an improved incandescent lightbulb, and a harpoon gun to tag finback whales. This true story of an early inventor/entrepreneur is not only thrilling but also explains the science and early technology behind food preservation. Simultaneously available in a hardcover and trade paperback edition. Each edition includes an 8-page black-and-white photo insert.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, History, Food, Middle Grade

176 pages, Hardcover

First published November 11, 2014

About the author

Mark Kurlansky is an American journalist and author who has written a number of books of fiction and nonfiction. His 1997 book, Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World (1997), was an international bestseller and was translated into more than fifteen languages. His book Nonviolence: Twenty-five Lessons From the History of a Dangerous Idea (2006) was the nonfiction winner of the 2007 Dayton Literary Peace Prize.

Reviews

[Shauna Yusko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can't think of a "middle grade reader" that would actually enjoy this. But the science is interesting and could be utilized in class.

[Ahmed Atif Abrar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not for you if you want to learn about freezing mechanism or how refrigerators work although the book cover might entice you to have such an impression. Kurlansky has touched on it, but not elaborated. By looking at the bibliography, it gets apparent the author didn’t want dig much deeper into the scientific and technological interpretation. Nevertheless, I came to know a bit about crystallisation and salt’s role as a freezing agent yet liquefying ice. This book is rather centred around the life and the business enterprises of a tenacious Clarence Birdseye who interested himself in disease control, hunting, taxidermy, freezing food, manufacturing paper and monetizing his ideas; keeping his nose to the grindstone with his supportive Eleanor. I truly was confounded how a 10-year old Bob, as Birdseye was nicknamed, traded muskrats for $9, even more surprisingly, Bronx Zoo director Dr. William T. Hornaday helped him in the trade. Child labourers here in my land do much tougher and riskier jobs even before they are 10, but to have an idea and the audacity to materialise it at this age foretold a lot. Citing from the book (p. 15-16):

When Bob was ten years old, he became fixated, in that way ten-year-olds do, on something he had to have. In his case he just had to have a shotgun, which his parents weren't will- ing to buy for him. In his young mind hunting was not only an essential part of enjoying nature but also a way of profit- ing from the natural resources available to him. In his walks through the marshes around the sprawling Birdseye farm, he had noticed a great number of muskrats-large, homely, awkward, two-foot-long bundles of fur. Bob wondered where there would be a market for these large rodents. He wrote to Dr. William T. Hornaday, the director of the Bronx Zoo, and asked him if he would be interested in acquiring some muskrats. Hornaday wrote back, explaining that he already had all the muskrats he could use, but he referred him to an English aristocrat who was stocking an estate. The ten- year-old went into the marshes and set traps until he had twelve live muskrats, which he shipped to England. Nine of the muskrats survived the trip, and the Englishman paid him $1 for each. With that $9 Bob bought a single-barrel shot- gun. Making a profit from ideas was always a fundamental belief of Birdseye's.

[Don LaFountaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book about the man wh0 redefined the definition of frozen food and started a change in the way people ate long after he passed away.

Clarence Birdseye had grown up at a time that the industrial revolution was just beginning and was caught up in the idea that he could make money from other ideas. At a young age we what is now called an entrepreneur, and started various projects with the goal of making money. As he grew up and went through school, he was very interested in science, but did not do well in the other subjects. As Clarence became an adult, life brought him to Labrador. It was here that he felt most at home and where he started to come up with the idea of freezing various foods quickly so that that were fresh when they thawed out. He studied and tested until he gathered a lot of information and went back to the states.

As he developed more and better techniques for freezing food, he also realized that he had to overcome the prejudice of the public consumer. Up until then, frozen food was not made from quality products and were often disgusting to eat. A big backer of the revamped FDA laws of the 1920's, he foresaw the market for this type of food before others. His success and forward thinking led to General Foods to buy out Birdseye Seafoods, Inc. in 1929, and within 20 years the frozen food industry was exploding across the USA. Long after his death on October 9th, 1956, Birdseye frozen foods are still a staple in the US grocery store.

I found it to be interesting, though I don't think it is a book to be read more than once. It was written towards a 10 year old-ish audience, and reads pretty quickly. I would recommend it to that age group, as well as to adults who are interested in American history and the background of the US food industry.

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my opinion, the book was okay. The book would get pretty boring while I read it sometimes and I felt like there was too much description. However, a couple of times the story of Clarence Birdseye would get interesting, but I wouldn't say it was exciting. I wouldn't recommend this book to other people nor would I read the other books if it were in a series. I really felt like this book was boring because there was lots of description that would either throw me off or confuse me. The story of how Clarence Birdseye created frozen food was fine and sometimes interesting, but it wasn't exactly exciting or interesting. Overall, I felt like the book had too much description that didn't make it very interesting.

[Christy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though the subject matter and the story of Birdseye's life was fascinating, the book felt so disjointed. It wasn't unlike reading a term paper by a student who really didn't know how to capture concepts and pull them together in a meaningful way. The story jumped back and forth, between the past and present, between one subject and another, and never really seemed to pull together into a cohesive story.

I was able to get the gist, and loved reading about this fascinating man's life, but I would have preferred it if this had been written by an author who could more coherently pull together a story.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was good. Clarence "Bob" Birdseye lead an interesting life, and though quirky, was a good person and family man. He was curious and active, exploring and inventing. There was more info on his life and less about the science than I initially expected, but it was interesting. I did love the facts about refrigeration, crystallization, the economy, and brief highlights of other related inventors more than the principal biography, but it was a 150-pg., easy read. I don't know that I need to read the longer version of this--the YA length was good enough for the subject. There were good interesting tidbits to throw out to my wife and son as I read.

[Abraham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a good way to learn about the creation of the most important innovation in the way we eat since the invention of agriculture. This book really shows how one man can create an industry with hard work and determination. Although that may sound cliche it is defiantly an interesting story.

The story starts in with him as a child and shows his creative drive. It follows him through Colorado where he works with the CDC and to the arctic where he invents frozen food.

The adventures inventor may sound like a familiar plot this book shows how the way we eat is directly impacted by the people of the past. This book contains great adventures in the American wilderness and arguments between Wall Street bankers. It illustrates the life of a brilliant man and is definitely worth reading.

[Melanie Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was in the teen section of the library and there was also a young readers edition that our library didn’t carry. I preread this for content considerations for my 11 year old. While this didn’t necessarily have the best writing, the facts were interesting. There was a ton of names and dates and links to historical events. There was no content that I was concerned about, so I’m just assuming the young readers edition has fewer details.

[Brittany Henderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the story and information interesting but it read like a high school research paper. Weird transitions, explanations, and information that didn't seem to be relevant to anything. I only finished it because I was interested in the historical info and I was already part way through lol

[Debbie Ladd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot from this short little book. So many connections were made for me and the science explanations made the reading enjoyable. I recommend kids' nonfiction titles if you're interested in any particular topic.

[Backoff51]

A biography of the life of Clarence Birdseye who spent his life working on great challenges including the ways to freeze food and get it to the public in safe and delicious condition.

The book was both very interesting and informative.

[Allison Dunlap · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating bit of history, I'd never even contemplated the origins of frozen food before. I take so much for granted. Thanks Mr. Birdseye!

[Jane Night]

I didnt end up finishing this book. It kept going off on tangents about other topics and I lost interest.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than expected. Good for MS students.

[Dotty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bob Birdseye was a curious, imaginative and inventive person who never backed down from a challenge. Though I found some of his food tastes and hunting habits disconcerting, his impact on food preservation far outweighs my squeamishness.

Some observation quotes from the author:
p. 2: "The key to invention is simply imagining something."
The essential element of Birdseye personality was his love of wondering...
p. 68: "Birdseye asked himself many questions about food and survival in the subarctic. Why, he wondered, did people in Labrador eat lean food in the summer but a tremendous amount of fat in the winter?"
p. 71: " He noticed that the meat and fish were not as good when frozen in the early or late winter, and he wondered why."
p. 74: "He later said of what he had learned about freezing, 'I tucked this knowledge away in my subconscious mind, but its commercial possibilities did not dawn on me at that time.'"
p. 77: "Later in life Birdseye developed a pet theory that the subconscious resembled an electronic calculating machine. 'If you feed the right information into it,' he would say, 'it will quietly go to work in mysterious ways of its own and, by-and-by, produce the answer to your problem."
p. 78: "As with many inventors before him, Bob Birdseye made no scientific discoveries. His inventions were original ideas about how to use existing knowledge -- creative thinking. To him, fast freezing was a traditional idea that came from the Inuits, the native inhabitants of Labrador. All his life he credited them."
p. 132: "Bob was fascinated with processes and how to improve them. Writing about his curiosity, he explained: 'If I see a man skinning a fish, for example, a host of questions pop into my mind. Why is he skinning the fish? Why is he doing it by hand? Is the skin good for anything? If I am in a restaurant and get biscuits, which I like, I ask the chef how he made them: what did he put in the dough? How did he mix it? How long did the biscuits bake? At what temperature? When visit a strange city, I go through the local industrial plants to see how they make things. I don't care what the product is. I am just as much interested in the manufacture of chewing gum as of steel.'"
p. 150: "Perhaps the more important thing about Clarence Birdseye was his ability to live life as an adventure. Curiosity is the one essential ingredient to an adventurous life."

[Christina Getrost · Rating 3 out of 5]

Knowing nothing about the advent of the frozen food industry (or "frosted foods" as Birdseye originally called it), I learned quite a lot from this biography of Clarence Birdseye, the man who created a commercially successful method to quick-freeze fresh food and distribute it throughout the country. He was quite a character, always looking for adventure, and so he went to Montana on a medical science expedition, trapping and studying ticks to learn the causes and prevention of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever; he loved to hunt and fish so he got to do that a lot out there. He also lived many years off and on in the frozen wastes of Labrador, again, hunting fishing and trapping, and these and other experiences led to his eventual fame through frozen food. Fascinating stuff, this book giving very detailed histories of all sorts of related industries and inventions that led up to Birdseye's success. Has bibliography and index. All the photos are sandwiched into a center insert section, which I am never a fan of, but I think it makes for cheaper publication costs. the writing was fine, if a tiny bit overly detailed--some of the history of earlier inventions I thought was superfluous and distracting. But definitely a unique book about a unique guy and today's kids will be thoroughly flabbergasted to read about a time when you couldn't just pop a dinner into the microwave whenever you want...

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In today's modern world we very rarely think about where our food comes from. It comes from the grocery store and at the store we can pick up combinations of fresh, frozen, canned and boxed foods. A hundred years ago things were very different. Food could not travel long distances unless it was salted or canned. Fresh food was what you could get locally and frozen food didn't really exist. Bob Birdseye changed all that. Birdseye was a man of his time. He was an adventurer who explored a lot of different things in his life and traveled extensively. He became interested in frozen foods after living in Labrador and watching how the natives froze their food during the winter. Of course, he couldn't just come back and start making and distributing frozen foods. He had to not only invent the process for successfully flash freezing foods but also the distribution methods and the storage containers. This is a fascinating biography of a man who changed the world and who we don't really think about. I would highly recommend it.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a biography of Birdseye who put together and invented some parts to make frozen food doable for mass market and palatable. He realized that quick freezing was the method needed to keep the taste from changing. He lived in Labrador for a fair amount of time and did his observations there. Later on, he had impetus to create palatable food for his months old infant son Eventually this lead in a slow deviating way to mass marketing frozen food. Kuralansky made it clear that a lot of his information came from Birdseye's children who agreed to speak with him and contributed some photos used in the book. This will help with the I-need-an-inventor type requests that seem perennial. I did not find this as fascinating as other titles this author has done. This book to me is more of a 3.5 but I rounded up since he certainly is a fine writer. I just don't consider this one of his better books

[Annie Oosterwyk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a middle grade fit. Focuses on Birdseye's insatiable curiosity and desire to solve problems. He lead a life of adventure and scientific exploration, despite constantly killing things. He loved the west, the last frontier, and worked to discover how Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever was transmitted (and killing things).
He invented a process for flash-freezing and packaging and storing food that he sold to the Post family. He developed a process to make anhydrous foods. All of his ideas are shown by the author to be historically informed by the politics/inventions/wars of the times.
Most of his money making schemes involved killing things.
I have yet to read the adult version and look forward to exploring the differences.

[Kari · Rating 3 out of 5]

I left writing this to see if time would maybe change my mind. I have not read anything else by Kurlansky so do not know if this scattered style is his or the life of Birdseye. While the beginning was good background information a lot of the information gets lost in minute detail. The important point, he learned about freezing in Labrador, seems to take a long time to get there. Maybe the book's title gave me a preconceived notion that it would be more about frozen food amd not a diary of Birdseye's eating habits. I return back to the idea this should be accessible to young readers but cannot think of any I would recommend this to.

[Jesse Figuera · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this just because I thought it would be hard to recommend it without reading it...a story of the life of Clarence Birdseye (invented frozen food as we know it)..turns out- it was fascinating and really fun to read and while I am still having a hard time selling it to kids- I was wowed. Frozen Food is one of many things he was interested in and he had a passionate zest for life and adventure- living all over the world and loving it. A very fun read, and an eye opener- you'll never walk through the frozen food aisle the same way again.

[Kathleen McRae · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed parts of this book on Birdseye frozen Foods and its history but I am not a fan of making hero’s out of men who were the only ones at that time who would get recognition for doing something and of making a myth of a reason why they achieved what they did. They may well have been a curious person but when we tell a story we need to include the fact that women were excluded and many men did things for money and fame and power because that was the world back then and men had a very great pressure to prove themselves.

[Ms. Patterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mr. Birdseye was a fascinating man and his biography should have been very interesting. Unfortunately, I found this a dull, dry read. I had to go google pictures of the things being talked about in the story, just so I could picture what was being described. If I had to do this, then so will many young readers (although they probably won't bother). It would have been nice to have included some pictures alongside the text, rather than a middle insert.

[David R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brisk and fascinating biography of the man who made the modern frozen food industry. Kurlansky's book is probably best seen as a young adult piece as it's rather light for the serious adult reader.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never really liked the man. I think the author did a good job telling a story, but I never felt this mans life had a redeeming quality. His efforts revolutionized the food we eat in America, but I never felt inspired.

[Cynthia Shutts · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Kira McGann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating biography on
Bob Birdseye. A very multi-talented individual.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be very interesting but I doubt I will be able to get any middle schooler to read it. Possibly one who is really, really interested in inventing/inventions.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wish I could say 3.5 stars! Not a bad biography but not one I'm thinking middle school kids will read.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

The most fascinating book about frozen food you will ever read. Part biography, part company story, and all entertaining..