The basic process for preservation of unsweetened condensed milk by heat sterilization was conceived by John B. Meyenberg in 1882, a Swiss citizen, and an employee of the Anglo Swiss Condensed Milk Company.
Gail Borden (November 9, 1801 – January 11, 1874), surveyor and inventor, New York-born began experimenting in 1849 with a condensed-beef-broth and-flour concoction that he called a meat biscuit. It was a pemmican-like food that could be taken into the field or on long trips without spoiling.
While returning from a trip to England in 1851, Borden was devastated by the death of several of his children, apparently from poor quality milk obtained from shipboard cows. Borden wondered how milk could be processed and packaged so that it would not go bad. This was a problem not only on long ocean voyages but on land, as well, because at the time, milk was shipped in unsanitary oak barrels and spoiled quickly.
During promoting his meat biscuit, Borden began to experiment with condensing a number of products, including milk, coffee, tea, and cider. Borden was inspired by the vacuum pan he had seen being used by Shakers to condense fruit juice, and he was at last able to reduce milk without scorching or curdling it.
In what proved later to be his most successful venture, he created a commercially viable method for producing condensed milk that was consistently pure and long-lasting. His condensed milk was sweetened with sugar.
Even then, his first two factories failed, and only the third, built in New York with his new partner, Jeremiah Milbank, produced a usable milk derivative that was long-lasting and needed no refrigeration.
In 1856, Gail Borden patented the evaporation of milk at reduced pressure, using the concentrate to make sweetened condensed milk.
Jeremiah Milbank, a New York financier, met Borden in 1858. They quickly became partners, founding the New York Condensed Milk Company, and sales increased markedly. In 1864, the first Eagle Brand Consolidated Milk production plant opened on the east branch of the Croton River in southeastern New York.
In 1884, John B. Meyenberg patented a process for sterilizing concentrated milk in tinned cans, which were rotated under pressurized steam, allowing for a relatively short sterilization time.
Gail Borden Jr: Father of the process of milk condensing
