Durkee (food brand)

Durkee is an American brand of spices, marinades, and powdered sauce mixes owned by B&G Foods.^[1] Durkee Famous Foods was established by Eugene R. Durkee in 1851.^[2]

Durkee

A jar of Durkee meat tenderizer (contains bromelain)
Owner	B&G Foods
Introduced	1851 (1851)

E.R. Durkee & Company (1891 etching)

History

Durkee's was established by Eugene R. Durkee, the founder of E. R. Durkee & Co. Spice dealers in Buffalo, New York, in 1857. By 1917, the company had built a four-story industrial structure in Elmhurst, Queens.^[3][4] Durkee became the largest factory and employer in Elmhurst, with over 300 employees, primarily women. E.R. Durkee died in 1926, leaving everything to his daughters.^[5]

Upon its purchase as a division of Glidden Co. in 1929, it became Durkee's Famous Foods. In 1967, Glidden merged with SCM Corp (formerly Smith-Corona company) and Durkee became the Glidden-Durkee Division of SCM.^[3][5]

Since the 1980s the company has had a series of owners,^[6] starting with the sale of SCM to Hanson Trust, PLC in 1986 before it was absorbed into a larger-food processing conglomerate, ACH Food Companies, a subsidiary of Associated British Foods, which ultimately sold it to B&G Foods in 2016.^[7] That acquisition included the company's major production and distribution facility in Ankeny, Iowa that was originally the home of Tone Brothers Spices when it was owned by Rykoff Sexton.^[2] The Elmhurst building had been renovated in 2007 to become the Elmhurst Educational Campus, hosting three separate high schools.^[8]

The company's distinctive "mustardy, vinegary, mayonnaise-based" Durkee Sauce is sold at Court Street Grocers in Brooklyn and served on their Turkey + Durkee sandwich.^[1]