DEARBORN, Mich. – They say everything is big in Texas, but Michigan has quite a history of oversized objects. From the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile to the giant Uniroyal tires on eastbound Interstate 94, there are plenty of landmarks in the state that fit into the “oversized object” category.
Some still remain, but many have been removed: You may remember that in 2016, Big Buck Brewery in Auburn Hills removed the giant Big Buck beer bottles that were a staple for many I-75 drivers, but do you remember the Presto Whip cans featured in the Telegraph?
History of the Presto Whip
Rich Whipped Topping – “Miracle cream made from soybeans”
Soy Info Center explains how Presto Whip came about: In case you didn’t know, World War II was a tough time for the dairy industry. The sale of whipped cream was banned and all dairy products were rationed. Bob Rich, a federal consultant who oversaw milk production in the Great Lakes region, founded Rich Products Corporation in 1944 to provide the world with whipped cream, which was in short supply.
According to the Soy Info Center, Rich got the idea for the business when a purchasing rep from Ford Hospital in Detroit came to his office looking for butter. Rich explained to the rep that he didn’t sell butter, only condensed milk and dry milk products for the military. The rep was disappointed and told Rich that the hospital didn’t need milk because all milk and cream products were produced in Dearborn from soybeans at Henry Ford’s Carberry Laboratories.
An epiphany struck. He’d never heard of soy milk, so the purchasing agent invited him to visit the lab. During his visit, he met head chemists Rex Diamond and Bob Smith. Diamond, who was committed to promoting soy milk, told Rich that for just $1 a year he could license the rights to Ford’s patented continuous protein extraction process to make soy creamer. He began dreaming of developing a soy-milk-based creamer that could be whipped.
According to the Soy Info Center, he took his idea back to Buffalo, New York, where, with the help of leading dairy engineers, he developed a batch protein extraction process that eventually allowed him to extract a significantly higher percentage of isolated soy protein from soy flakes. With this satisfactory extraction system and a superior “soy cream” formula, Bob Rich founded and incorporated Rich Products in Buffalo. Rich’s Whip Topping hit store shelves in April 1945, becoming one of the world’s oldest and most popular commercial foods to use isolated soy protein as a key ingredient.
Competitor: Delsoy
Remember Bob Smith? Well, he’s a big deal now. Unbeknownst to Rich, Bob Smith and Herbert Marshall Taylor had been working on a similar idea. They introduced a dairy-free whipped topping just before Rich’s whipped topping hit the market. Delsoy, a soy milk-based dairy-free topping, was manufactured in Dearborn and sold primarily in restaurants in Detroit. It was eventually sold in New York retail stores in the spring of 1945. Delsoy is known as the earliest commercially available dairy-free whipped topping in America. The product was not as successful as Smith and Taylor had hoped, but that was because it was not a frozen product and therefore had a very short shelf life.
According to Detroit History Revealed, Delsoy eventually improved on the nitrogen gas and valve design of the Super Whip Company of Chicago to develop Presto Whip. The Soy Information Center states, “By 1947, the company introduced Delsoy Super Whip: Instant Dessert Topping (in pressurized cans, all-vegetable soy-milk-based non-dairy whipped topping) and Presto Whip (in pressurized cans, all-vegetable soy-milk-based non-dairy whipped topping, with valve – refrigerated), and in 1960 the same product was also sold frozen.”
A giant can of whipped cream!
According to Detroit History Revealed, Delsoy was purchased by Harvey Whitehouse of Whitehouse Products Inc. in 1963. It also states that sometime in the late 1960s, Whitehouse decided to erect two large 30-foot Presto Whip Cans on the east side of Telegraph Rd to help promote local products. Although they looked like simple advertisements, they were actually silos for storing soybean oil and sugar.
Presto Whip Building, Dearborn, Michigan, 1976 (Henry Ford)
What happened to the Presto Whip cans?
The cans were demolished in the 80’s, possibly in 1983, around the time White House Products and the Presto Whip trademark were sold to CJ Christoph and Sons of Lowell, Michigan.
The former Delsoy Products store at 2033 S. Telegraph St. at Harvard Street in Dearborn is now a car dealership, and LaFontaine Toyota stands on the graveyard of the beloved giant Presto Whip cans.
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