Eugene Gagliardi , paterfamilias of the Gagliardi meat-packing business business , raised the 22 - ounce stock-still log of beef by-product that would briefly become known as Steak - umm and send itcareeninginto his son ’s ankle .
“ Nobody is ever move to buy this sh*t ! ” he screamed , storming off .
" My dad was not supportive , " Gene Gagliardi , whose Achilles tendon had been targeted , tells Mental Floss . " I decided to process on it at night . "
The elder Gagliardi was not a man give to flight of fancy in the meat business concern , and now was not the prison term to try his patience with an experimentation . It was the mid-1960s and his company was floundering , having lost some valuable account in late months . What the younger Gagliardi had perceive to be a possible root was , to his Padre , a joke . To Gene , it seemed like nothing could be done to please his father — not even his idea to overturn the wintry beef business by collecting scraps of unwanted meat and urge on it into a loaf of bread .
The vernal Gagliardi would eventually sell Steak - umm to Heinz for $ 20 million . He was one of the few who saw the potential for thinly - slice up steaks and refused to abandon the estimation , even as his ankle throb .
When Gagliardi was 6 years old , his Father-God seated him on a pear crateful , put a tongue in his hand , and told him to start cut . Chopping beef and poultry was the family business , and the Gagliardi clan — Prince Eugene of Savoy and his three sons , with Gene the middle child — were prominent center merchant in the West Philadelphia arena of Pennsylvania . There was no clock time to run off .
In the 1950s , the Gagliardis found succeeder sell portion - command meat cuts long before commercial food manufacturers come out huckster smaller serving size for dieter . They also curated premium slabs of boeuf and sold them to eminent - end clientele . When the fast food chains like Burger King and McDonald ’s begin to proliferate , the Gagliardisearnedtheir business , too .
But by the sixties , the laundry list of accounts had begun to dry out up . tawdry supplier were becoming more abundant , and the personalized touch of Gagliardi Brothers was becoming less of a buying influence . With business slow down down , Gene Gagliardi wouldstay up lateat night and think about how to work his folk ’s finances back from the brink . That direction , maybe his don would provide him to pursue his dream of being a ballpark ranger in Montana .
One of those nights , the then-30 - year - honest-to-goodness identify a problem with the well - have sex Philly - expressive style cheesesteaks . The chewy steak cuts were tough to handle for both tyke and fourth-year citizens , and posed a chip of achoking riskacross the board . Gagliardi thought a attender origin of the beef would widen the appeal of the cheesesteak and open it up to a with child marketplace .
" It was tough moo-cow substance back then , " he say . " You had to be real deliberate about fertilise it to kids because the kernel would drag out of the sandwich . I cerebrate , well , if you could homogenize milk , you should be able to homogenize meat . "
Gagliardi thought he could weaken up the essence by running it repeatedly through a meat hero . " I did that about five times , take out the protein out , and it became a solid mass . I could n’t slice up it , so I freeze it and then put it back in the fridge for four days to temperate it , then sliced it . " Gagliardi had created a tender inwardness mathematical product that could be sold frozen and virtually decimate the choking hazards of conventional Philly cheesesteaks .
( In a 2012 federal court opinion , a jurist wouldarticulateexactly what Gagliardi had done . " [ The Steak - umm was ] from chopped and formed emulsified essence ware that is comprised of bitch trimmings left over after an animal is slaughtered and all of the primary cuts , such as tenderloin , fish fillet , and rib center , are removed , ” Judge Lawrence Stengel wrote . “ The emulsified meat is pressed into a loaf and sliced , frozen , and packaged . " )
Because the beef was so flat , it took only 30 seconds to cook each side . Gagliardi taste it , find it delicious , and thought he ’d solved his family ’s trouble .
His father was not a rooter . After scold his son for even contemplating the approximation , he begrudgingly allowed him to pitch it to supermarkets . Gagliardi offered to sell itbelow costso shop would carry it . Marketed under the Gagliardi ’s frozen brand of Table Treats , the frozen meat slices debut in 1969 .
" We actually sell it to school lunch programs , " Gagliardi say . " kid ate it , loved it , then went home and ask for it . "
Its eye - raise origins aside , shoppers seemed to comprehend the product . It was quick to make — some college educatee even cooked the slices by wrapping them in foil and iron out them — tasty , and easy to jaw . The company even distributed it with frozen rolls for a consummate Philly cheesesteak experience . By 1975 , Gagliardi was distributing them under the name Steak - umm after a friend hint it during a quail hunting military expedition . By 1980 , he enjoin , it was the best - sell frozen nitty-gritty product in retail merchant Deepfreeze : " rival would seek to devote off inspector to find out how we did it . "
While the Steak - umm name was trademarked , Gagliardi was stillborn in obtaining a patent for the process used to make them . He blamed confusion in filing the document . " My brother was Mr. Thrifty and went to an lawyer who had never filed for a patent before , " he says .
Whatever the case , Steak - umm knock - offs became pervasive . When Heinz approached the brothers in 1980 with an offer of $ 20 million for the rights , it was an gentle determination .
The merchandising heftiness of Heinz further endeared the Steak - umm stigma to consumer . Heinz ( via their Ore - Ida variance ) possess Steak - umm through 1994 before selling it back to Gagliardi and hisnewest venture , Designer Foods . All along , the butcher had been treat his kitchen like a laboratory , finding new ways to trim meats to maximise profitableness for electrical distributor . He wound up patent several new method , including what would become KFC ’s Popcorn Chicken in 1992 .
Steak - umm commute hand once more in 2006 , when Quaker Maid Meats purchased the company . In 2008 , they go in into lengthy litigation with Steak ‘ Em Up , a Philadelphia - establish eatery that Quaker alleged was guilty of consumer mental confusion . A 2012 federal ruling wasin favorof the defendant , who serves authentic Philly cheesesteaks and “ think it was a put-on ” that anyone could confuse them for the glacial alternative .
At 86 , Gagliardi still labor at the butcher ’s block , working on food innovation for his company , Creativators . Despite his numerous contribution to food service , he still feels slighted by his founder , who passed away in 1991 and apparently never recognize his son ’s success .
" I never got a compliment , " he says .
