Meat extract
Meat extract is a highly concentrated extract from beef . One kilogram of the deep brown, chewy paste is made from 30 kilograms of muscle meat without any other ingredients. Meat extract can accordingly be used sparingly for the production of meat broth (bouillon) or for flavoring soups and sauces .
It has largely been replaced by cheaper substitutes such as vegetable seasoning , which, however, differ in taste from real meat extract.
Manufacturing
For production, pure muscle meat, freed from fat, tendons and skins, is ground and heated to a temperature of 75-80 ° C with the same amount of water. The strong meat broth obtained in this way is only further boiled down to a certain extent in the water bath. The liquid then cools down. The remaining fat, which has become rigid, remains during the filtering process. Further boiling down creates a brown, ointment-like substance. It can be dissolved again by adding hot water.
Meat extract for use in the food industry is usually not obtained from sheer meat, but from leftovers from food production such as cooking water from corned beef , meat and bone waste.
history
Forerunner in England
In England, as early as the 17th century, dried meat extract was available in cubes as provisions for travelers. It was not produced industrially, but by individual households, if necessary and according to private recipes. He has been called "portable soup" (portable soup) referred. In a cookbook by Hannah Glasse from 1747 there are two recipes for this. A large amount of meat was boiled out and then reduced to a jelly , which was then dried. Infused with hot water, it made a soup. The inventor of this extract is unknown, the first known mention comes from a Sir Hugh Plat in the early 17th century. One such cube is on display in the UK's National Maritime Museum , which comes from a James Cook expedition .
Bouillon tables in France
A process for the industrial production of meat extract was developed around 1800 by the French chemists Proust and Parmentier , who made bouillon tablets from the dried, gelatinized mass . They were used as food for the crew of ships before they were replaced by Liebig's meat extract. The soup made from it with hot water was also called table or pocket bouillon. However, this finished product was often falsified by imitators. "The bouillon tablets have come into serious disrepute because they often consisted of almost nothing but glue [jelly], perfumed with the roast aroma of the meat."
Liebig's meat extract
The German chemist Justus von Liebig developed a concentrated meat drink since the 1840s. In 1853 he gave it to the cholera sick daughter Emma of his friend, the chemist and industrialist James Muspratt , who was staying with Liebig at the time. She could no longer eat solid foods. After a few days the girl recovered from the meat potion and Liebig published the recipe in the Annalen der Chemie under the title A new meat broth for the sick.
The entrepreneur and engineer Georg Christian Gilbert, who had read this article, offered Liebig a collaboration in Uruguay in 1862 . At the time there was a large surplus of beef in South America, as the animals were kept mainly for the hides and skins. Due to the lack of cooling facilities at the time, the meat could not be transported over long distances. From then on, Liebig meat extract was produced there in huge quantities and sold worldwide. Production in South America also gained in importance as a result of the German Wars of Unification between 1864 and 1870. In order to promote awareness and popularity, the enclosing of collective pictures ( Liebig pictures ) became an effective advertising measure.
According to Liebig's ideas, the meat extract should be a nutrient primarily for the poorer population, but it turned out to be too expensive. Instead, he was used as a nutrient-rich addition to the troops boarding in several wars and was part of the iron ration of German and British soldiers in the First World War . It is still in production and is used in the kitchen and in the food industry.
developments
In the 1880s, Liebig's Extract of Meat Company developed the stock cube , a base for stock made with beef tallow in a cube. There was an increasing trend to replace the expensive meat extract: Julius Maggi brought the liquid Maggi wort onto the market from 1899 . The pemmican , a mixture of crushed jerky meat and fat, which is suitable as travel provisions , came from the Indian tradition . Instant soups are one development that a ready-made dish provides .
literature
- Friedrich Orend: Henriette Davidis and Liebig. Invention and Marketing. In: Profession of the Virgin. Henriette Davidis and the bourgeois understanding of women in the 19th century. 2nd edition. Graphium press, Oberhausen 1990, pp. 166-175. ISBN 3-9800259-9-3
- Günther Klaus Judel: The story of Liebig's meat extract. To the famous chemist's most popular invention. In: Spiegel der Forschung: Science magazine of the Justus Liebig University Giessen , 20th year, No. 1, October 2003, p. 6. PDF
- Hans-Jürgen Teuteberg: The role of meat extract for nutritional science and the rise of the soup industry. Little history of the meat broth . Steiner, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-515-05714-5 .
- Bernhard Jussen: Liebig's collecting pictures - complete edition of series 1 to 1138. , Directmedia Publishing , Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-89853-640-0
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Alan Davidson: The Oxford Companion to Food . 2nd. ed. Oxford 2006, article Portable Soup , p. 625
- ↑ Hans-Jürgen Teuteberg: The role of meat extract for nutritional science and the rise of the soup industry. A short history of the meat broth , Stuttgart 1990
- ↑ Meyers Konversationslexikon, article Bouillontafeln , approx. 1895
- ↑ Everything about "Liebig's meat extract " by Hubertus Volz (teacher at the Justus Liebig School in Darmstadt)