Short Stuff: William A. Mitchell: Food Inventor

William A. Mitchell invented some iconic snack foods and candies. Learn all about him today! See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:04Josh Clark?

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• 0:39Josh Clark?

  Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck, Jerry's here for Dave, and this is short stuff. We're talking about one of the greatest Americans to ever grace this earth.

• 0:49Speaker 02

  That's right. A food scientist named William A. Mitchell, who was a research chemist for 35 years at General Foods. And this is a great guy, it seems like it. There was an interview with a guy named Marv Rudolph, who worked with Mitchell that said, he just knew how to amplify flavors in food. He knew what colors to make something to make it more attractive. And if you had a problem, he was the guy to go to. He could figure it out. The other great thing was, and this is also from the same interview, is they tried to promote him at General Foods to management many, many times, but he didn't want to do that. He was a lab guy and wanted to stay in the lab.

• 1:28Josh Clark?

  Yes, and that is the sign of a true artiste.

• 1:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:32Josh Clark?

  Because I think we talked about in our Peter Principle episode, appropriately enough, because that's what we're talking about here, you can very easily get raised, I guess.

• 1:43Speaker 02

  Promoted.

• 1:45Josh Clark?

  Promoted. Thank you. Out of your field of expertise and suddenly you're a manager and not everybody's a manager. We can tell you for sure.

• 1:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, I've done that job. I'm okay at it. I don't love it.

• 1:57Josh Clark?

  I'm terrible at it. Screaming, pounding my fists on desks, it doesn't work.

• 2:02Speaker 02

  But Mitchell, and we'll get to the things he invented after this, maybe because that'll be a nice little teaser, but he has more than 70 food patents that he invented from 1941 to 1976. But this was a guy that was born to very, very hard work in a Minnesota farm family, or to a Minnesota farm family in 1911, isn't that right?

• 2:22Josh Clark?

  Yeah, because his dad died while he was in elementary school. Although I suspect if you're born to a Minnesota farm family in 1911, you're going to work regardless. But I think the pressure was on William Mitchell even more than the average Minnesota farm child born in 1911 because of his father's death. So Bill Mitchell had to harvest peas and beans for other farmers to help supplement the income of their family. By the time he was a teenager, the family was living in Colorado, and he was trapping muskrat and I guess selling them at the local muskrat market and harvesting melons for other farmers too. So he did a lot of work that probably the average person didn't.

• 3:04Josh Clark?

  But he also worked his way through college too, I guess as a carpenter.

• 3:08Speaker 02

  Yeah. Before that, though, he got a job that would kind of come in handy later on as a food scientist because he worked the overnight shift at the sugar crystallization tank room for the American beet sugar company. So that work with sugar just sort of put a pin in that because that'll come back.

• 3:26Josh Clark?

  Yeah, you can kind of imagine that's probably where he started to develop his love of food science, right?

• 3:32Speaker 02

  I mean, I don't know. One can only guess, but I mean, he was around all that sugar.

• 3:36Josh Clark?

  Yeah, really hyped him up. Well, I say that because pretty early on, after he graduated with a master's degree in chemistry, he went into research chemistry with a, I guess, a lean toward food because it was at the agricultural experiment station in Lincoln, Nebraska. I'm guessing he worked a lot with corn. And so that was his first career was essentially in food science, or he started working with food as a scientist. How about that?

• 4:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, for sure. And as you will see, he was not a person to be deterred because not long after he started that job, there was a pretty bad explosion from heating a cracked beaker with alcohol in it. And he got second and third degree burns over 80% of his body. Took some time off to recover a few months. And then that is when he landed his job and moved to White Plains, New York with the General Foods, excuse me, More Than One Food Corporation.

• 4:30Josh Clark?

  Don't say it. Don't say any names yet.

• 4:32Speaker 02

  I won't.

• 4:33Josh Clark?

  Okay, because we're going to take a break real quick and we're going to come back and talk about some of the great things that Bill Mitchell did with his life later after this.

• 4:50Speaker 03

  First thought is like, wow, how are we going to do all this?

• 4:52Josh Clark?

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• 5:42Josh Clark?

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• 7:03Josh Clark?

  So Chuck, we talked about Bill Mitchell being an amazing person. And one of the reasons why is because he developed some of the best foods that came out of the 20th century. Not the best-for-you foods, just the best.

• 7:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, I wondered after I did this research, I was like, man, are we gonna get people writing in because we're like celebrating this guy for creating junk food?

• 7:21Josh Clark?

  Well, they just can soak their heads.

• 7:24Speaker 02

  Great. I like that term. That's a nice way to say other things. So one of the first things was in 1957, he was like, how about a powdered drink that tastes sort of like, sort of citrusy, and people might think it's good for you?

• 7:38Josh Clark?

  But it's 98% sugar.

• 7:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, it is primarily sugar, got a little bit of vitamin C in there, and those flavor crystals happening. And you're gonna mix that together with water, and you're gonna get a bright, very bright, almost unsettlingly bright orange color, tangerine-colored drink, and it's called Tang.

• 7:58Josh Clark?

  Yeah. And you said flavor crystals. That was a big one, because William Mitchell was known in the food science industry as the master of disaster. And then in parentheses, they would put disaster being flavor crystals.

• 8:12Josh Clark?

  They just couldn't find anything that rhymed with it.

• 8:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. Tank wasn't a big hit right away, though. It took a little while to catch on, but one of the big things that helped, you know, helped launch it, I guess, pun intended, was when it went into outer space in 1962. It was onboard John Glenn's Mercury spaceflight because he was like, man, we're storing this drinking water in metal cans and metal vats and it tastes gross. So he's like, just throw some Tang powder in there and you're all good.

• 8:41Josh Clark?

  Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, this was the time when America was just totally fascinated with space, you know? You could have put an old leather boot in space and sold it as Tang and people would have drank it.

• 8:52Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 8:53Josh Clark?

  So you talked about John Glenn saying it was gross to drink metallic water. Later on, Buzz Aldrin said Tang is gross. As a matter of fact, he said Tang sucks. And he said it while he was doing the most 2013 thing you could possibly be doing. He was presenting a Spike TV Guy's Choice Award to Felix Baumgartner.

• 9:18Speaker 02

  Oh, was he the parachute guy?

• 9:20Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 9:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, that jumped from space?

• 9:22Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 9:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, sponsored by Red Bull.

• 9:24Josh Clark?

  Yeah, and I don't know how it came up. I didn't see the clip, but that was what made the rounds in the media. Tang sucks, end quotes.

• 9:31Speaker 02

  Oh, good for you, Buzz. Speaking of being sponsored, though, by the time Apollo 8 rolled around, Tang was such a thing for space flights that the televised event was sponsored by Tang. They were like, we got to get in on this thing.

• 9:45Josh Clark?

  Did you drink Tang when you were a kid?

• 9:47Speaker 02

  A little bit, but we, I drank a lot of water. My mom was, you know, we couldn't afford a lot of stuff, even though Tang was like super cheap. And I think my mom also didn't want us just having a ton of junk. It wasn't like super health food family or anything, but it was just one of the things like, I'm not going to waste my money on that garbage.

• 10:05Josh Clark?

  I guess you probably didn't drink Kool-Aid either?

• 10:09Speaker 02

  A little bit here and there. Those were treats. I usually got it at other kids' houses.

• 10:12Josh Clark?

  Yeah, Kool-Aid was the best.

• 10:14Speaker 02

  Did you just drink all that stuff?

• 10:16Josh Clark?

  I drank so much Kool-Aid. Cherry lime was really good. Grape was probably the best. Oh my God.

• 10:24Speaker 02

  Good freezer pops too.

• 10:26Josh Clark?

  Yes, but if you ever made it Chuck, you would put the Kool-Aid powder in a pitcher and it would be like a couple tablespoons, maybe tops. And then you would pour literal cups of sugar on top of it. Add water, stir, and just thank me later.

• 10:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:43Josh Clark?

  Yeah. It was, it was nuts. Like, looking back, it was insane that that's what kids drank.

• 10:50Speaker 02

  Pretty great. God bless the seventies. Bill Mitchell was trying to solve a lot of problems often when he came up with these inventions for food. Try to save people time in the kitchen at the time, you know, trying to save moms time in the kitchen. And in 1967, he was like, Jell-O takes way too long to make because you have to use this hot water, boiling water to dissolve that stuff. So he came up with a, and got a patent for a quick set form of Jell-O using cold water. It was like, look at that, everybody. Presto, change-o, you got cold Jell-O in no time flat.

• 11:22Josh Clark?

  No time flat. So what's interesting is Jell-O is very famous for making some really weird, being a part of some really weird mid-century recipes. So Bill Mitchell had his hand in Jell-O. He also had his hand in another ingredient, some really weird recipes from mid-century, which was Cool Whip. Which was, and still is, almost totally artificial whipped cream. It's made with water, hydrogenated vegetable oil, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, and then skim milk. And the skim milk is a modern addition. There used to be nothing that was a milk product in Cool Whip, which meant you could freeze it, which was a huge boon to general foods, right?

• 12:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, but I think you missed one ingredient.

• 12:04Josh Clark?

  Love?

• 12:05Speaker 02

  The hand of God.

• 12:07Josh Clark?

  So you're a Cool Whip dude, huh?

• 12:09Speaker 02

  I mean, we don't get it because it's just, you know, it's garbage. But you know, when we, uh, pumpkin pie and pecan pie and stuff like that around Thanksgiving and Christmas, we will get Cool Whip. I don't like the shake a can, ready whip stuff. We're a Cool Whip family and it does not last long in our house because it just gets eaten out of the container with a spoon by all three of us.

• 12:31Josh Clark?

  Same with ready whip, though. You just turn it up and spray it right in your mouth and then when it's out, you, it gives you a pretty good buzz.

• 12:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, but I like that Cool Whip better. I like the taste.

• 12:40Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I'm with you.

• 12:41Speaker 02

  I like it frozen, too. I like it both ways, but it's really good frozen as well.

• 12:44Josh Clark?

  Yeah. Um, I think I told you before, Cool, yeah, we talked about this. Cool Whip and peanut butter, it's a dangerous combination.

• 12:50Speaker 02

  Oh, I still didn't try that. I forgot. I'll have to try that this Thanksgiving.

• 12:55Josh Clark?

  You know, you probably just shouldn't. I don't think you should. It's like, you might as well have just said, I think I'll start smoking cigarettes.

• 13:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's a good point.

• 13:03Josh Clark?

  So the, the, the granddaddy of them all, um, Bill Mitchell had a hand in, in that he kind of laid the groundwork for the product to come. But back in 1956, William Mitchell was trying to figure out ways to carbonate Kool-Aid.

• 13:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:20Josh Clark?

  To basically create instant soda.

• 13:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:25Josh Clark?

  And he was like, let me just figure out how to add carbon dioxide to flavor crystals, because again, he was the flavor crystal king.

• 13:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:33Josh Clark?

  Uh, and I guess he, he did enough so that like, he created a legacy, um, uh, process of adding CO2 to, to flavor crystals. It just wasn't creating the soda that he was looking for. So he shelved it and then somebody else came along and picked it up, right?

• 13:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, 20 years later, uh, somebody else tweaked it just a bit and thankfully, the, the world, the United States and the world over got Pop Rocks.

• 13:59Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 14:00Speaker 02

  Can you describe Pop Rocks if people don't know what those are?

• 14:03Josh Clark?

  Oh, they're little, very tiny candy on the, kind of like the size and shape of nerds. And if you don't know what nerds are, we're just totally lost here. Not quite as coated, if they are at all, but when they touch your tongue, that CO2 that's inside just like starts to get released and it makes the candy crackle. So not only does it make a cool sound, fizzing sound, just like the top of like when you pour a Sprite. Like you can feel it on your tongue, too. It's very delightful.

• 14:34Speaker 02

  Yeah. So I mean, the idea was you would take a scoop of this and add water. So in this case, the water is just the, your saliva and the moisture from your mouth and your tongue.

• 14:43Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 14:44Speaker 02

  And I gave Ruby some when she was like four or five. I was like, you've never had Pop Rocks, kiddo. You gotta try this out. And she was, it was sort of one of those great mind blowing moments as a parent.

• 14:56Josh Clark?

  She'd like more?

• 14:57Speaker 02

  No, not really. She's not one of those kids that, it's weird. She loves the thing, but maybe it's the ADHD. She, she kind of forgets about it after that.

• 15:05Josh Clark?

  Usually ADHD laser focuses on something like a big sugar rush. So she's fortunate.

• 15:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:12Josh Clark?

  So there was a myth, I think some people probably still believe this if they've heard it, Chuck, that if you drink soda and Pop Rocks, eat Pop Rocks at the same time, you're at risk of blowing your stomach up from all of the carbon dioxide. And that is just not true. But it was persistent enough that General Foods had to take out a full page ad back in the seventies. And I looked it up. It's an open letter to parents talking about Pop Rocks and how it's safe. And it was written by Bill Mitchell.

• 15:44Speaker 02

  Oh, that's great.

• 15:45Josh Clark?

  Yeah. So they trotted him out and they were like, tell everybody, Bill. Cause we don't understand how they work. You explain it.

• 15:51Speaker 02

  Yeah. They stood next to him with a knife gently pressed into the side of his neck.

• 15:56Speaker 02

  So we salute you, William A. Mitchell. He retired from General Foods in 1976. Tried to find out some dirt on this guy, but he seems like just a pretty great person. He was a father of seven. He's married for 60 years. And when he passed away in 2004, his obituary said he was devoted, stimulating and loving parent, and made a pretty big impact on, you know, the diet of American kids.

• 16:21Josh Clark?

  Yeah, and we should say one of those seven children is Cheryl Mitchell, his daughter. She became a food scientist as well, followed in her father's footsteps. And if you like rice dream, you can thank Cheryl Mitchell or Elmhurst Nut Grain and Seed Milk. You can thank her as well. And she's known as a, quote, "world authority on sweeteners, rice processing, and the extraction and metabolism of inulin."

• 16:45Speaker 02

  Parentheses, but not flavor crystals.

• 16:47Josh Clark?

  No, that was her dad's jam.

• 16:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, I love the legacy continues. Pretty cool.

• 16:52Josh Clark?

  Same here. All right, well, thank you. And thank you for signing off. As a salute to William Mitchell, too, Chuck. I appreciate it. And I think that also means short stuff is out.

• 17:05Speaker 06

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