William Underwood Company

The William Underwood Company, founded in 1822, was an American food company best known for its flagship product, Underwood Deviled Ham, a canned meat spread. The company also had a key role in time-temperature research done at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1895 to 1896, which would lead to the development of food science and technology as a profession.

The company was established by its founder William Underwood (1787–1864) in 1822 in Boston, Massachusetts, as a condiment company using glass packing techniques. Among the condiments and other items glass packed were mustard, ketchup of various kinds, many types of pickled vegetables, and cranberries, primarily focusing on mustards and pickling. By 1836, Underwood shifted his packing from glass to steel cans coated with tin on the inside because glassmakers in the Boston area could not keep up with product demands from the canning company.

Underwood's canned foods proved valuable to settlers during the Manifest Destiny period of 1840–60. Additionally, Underwood sold numerous canned foods to Union troops during the American Civil War of 1861–65. The amount of products canned increased to include seafood products, such as lobster, oyster, and mackerel. William Underwood died in 1864, the same year that William Lyman Underwood, one of his three grandsons, was born. Underwood's son, William James Underwood, would head the business as new retort technology continued to be developed for use.

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