history of soy yogurt, soy acidophilus milk and other ... - SoyInfo Center

399. Thalman, Margaret Morse. 1980. Memories of her
father, William J. Morse (Interview). Conducted by William
Shurtleff of Soyfoods Center, Sept. 18 and Oct. 3. 1 p.
transcript.
• Summary: William Morse, her father, as born on 10 May
1884 in Lowville, New York (upstate). His father was a
butcher. W.J. Morse’s wife, Edna, went on the trip to East
Asia, as did Margaret, who was an only child. Edna kept
diaries for her daughter and wrote down what happened
every day–in child’s language such as “Played in the park.”
William Morse wrote much of the book about soybean
foods that he hoped to publish. He wrote it by hand on
yellow lined paper; it was never published and she has sent
the manuscript to the American Soybean Association.
During World War II W.J. Morse was under a great
deal of pressure. A great many people called on him for
information. He fi rst became aware that he had an ulcer in
about 1943, and this affected his diet. He lost a lot of weight
(you can see it in the photos of him from that period) and
he had to go on a “baby food diet.” He ate soft, bland foods
including soymilk, tofu and acidophilus soymilk and yogurt.
He bought soyfoods at the Seventh-day Adventist health
food store in Takoma Park, Maryland–including the soy ice
cream he loved. She does not recall that he ever made tofu or
soymilk at home.
After returning from their two years in East Asia, he
and his wife used soyfoods regularly in their diet. He liked
very much to make sukiyaki for dinner, especially for guests
or special occasions. He had a low sukiyaki table made by
having the legs cut of a regular table. Everyone would sit on
cushions on the fl oor, with an electric hot plate on the table.
His sukiyaki recipe always included tofu.
He and his wife like to put soy fl our in homemade
breads and waffl es. He did not eat a lot of meat but neither
was he a vegetarian. He ate Boston baked soybeans when his
wife fi xed them.
William Morse bought the house in Tacoma Park, DC, in
1917 and lived there until he retired, shortly after which he
and his wife moved to Eastchester New York, where he lived
the rest of his life.
He spent the last ten years of his life writing his book
(from time to time she typed up his notes), doing lots of
gardening and reading, and writing many letters. He kept in
touch with the world of soy.
His offi ce, where he had shelved with packaged
soyfoods, was in Washington, DC. He did not move his
offi ce to Beltsville until about 1939–when all of USDA
moved there.
Note: P.H. Dorsett was born on 21 April 1862. So at
the time the expedition fi rst arrived in Japan he was age 67.
Dorsett had a grown daughter.
“William Morse was a gentle, soft-spoken person,
who liked others and they liked him. He liked to tease, and
the secretaries at his offi ce all loved it. He was a very easy
HISTORY OF SOY YOGURT & CULTURED SOYMILK 163
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person to get along with; he was slow to anger and never
cursed. He wasn’t aggressive; where some might push,
he would give in. He was intelligent. His work came fi rst.
He was not fi nancially ambitious.” He was a rather heavy
cigarette smoker. His daughter remarked that “If anything
upset him, he didn’t let it out on his fellow workers.”
“His friends and co-workers called him “Bill.” His
family called him “Will.”
She still has her diaries and some of her father’s small
notebooks of the trip plus many photographs glued into
scrapbooks. She has no fi les of his left; she sent them all to
the American Soybean Association.
Verna Donavan was W.J. Morse’s secretary at USDA
starting not long before he went to the Orient to study
soybeans. After Morse returned, when the Bureau of Home
Economics became interested in soybeans, the two of them
were often asked to come over and to taste the soybean
dishes they had prepared.
Update. 2004. April 14. She has a book that was given
to her father when he retired from USDA. In it are letters
from many companies (cereal companies, oil companies,
etc.) praising his work. It also has letters of praise from his
co-workers and his superiors. Address: 22 Interlaken Rd.,
Eastchester, New York 10709. Phone: 914-632-2508.
400. Hesseltine, C.W.; Wang, Hwa L. 1980. Fermented
foods. Food Trade Review 50(9):473-79. Sept.; 50(10):543-
45. Oct. [4 ref]
• Summary: Discusses shoyu, tempeh, wheat soya tempeh,
sufu, natto, koji, miso, ragi, and soy yogurt. Address: USDA
NRRC, Peoria, Illinois.
401. Siedler, -. 1980. Re: Research on soyfoods in the
Department of Food Science, Univ. of Illinois. Letter
to William Shurtleff at Soyfoods Center, Oct. 28. 1 p.
Handwritten responses on Soyfoods Center letterhead.
• Summary: The earliest research in this department
appeared in a 1955 MSc thesis titled “Treatment and
utilization of extracted soybean fl akes for human
consumption.”
The main soyfoods studied to date by this department
have been: (1) Dairy analogs: Soymilk, chocolate soymilk,
yogurt, ice cream, and diet margarine. (2) Weaning foods:
Soy-cereal and soy-fruit.
Dr. Siedler estimates that 10 theses and 15 articles have
resulted from the department’s research on soyfoods. The
main researchers have been Wei, Nelson, and Steinberg.
402. Ostmann, Barbara Gibbs. 1980. Time for tofu. Post-
Dispatch (St. Louis, Missouri). Oct. 29. p. 1E, 4E. Food
section.
• Summary: When Bob Davis moved to St. Louis about
18 months ago, he was able to fi nd tofu only in health food
stores. So he started his own tofu company, Light Foods,