Meat extract

{{short description|Highly concentrated meat stock}} {{More citations needed|date=June 2014}} [[File:Brühwürfel-1.jpg|thumb|Stock cubes, the most common type of meat extract]]

'''Meat extract''' is highly concentrated meat stock, usually made from beef or chicken. It is used to add meat flavor in cooking, and to make broth for soups and other liquid-based foods.

Meat extract was invented by Baron Justus von Liebig, a German 19th-century organic chemist. Liebig specialised in chemistry and the classification of food and wrote a paper on how the nutritional value of a meat is lost by boiling. Liebig's view was that meat juices, as well as the fibres, contained much important nutritional value and that these were lost by boiling or cooking in unenclosed vessels.<ref name=Brock >{{cite book|title=Justus von Liebig : the chemical gatekeeper|first=William H.|last=Brock|year=1997|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, U.K.|isbn=9780521562249|pages=218–219}}</ref> Fuelled by a desire to help feed the undernourished, in 1840 he developed a concentrated beef extract, ''Extractum carnis Liebig'', to provide a nutritious meat substitute for those unable to afford the real thing. However, it took 30 kg of meat to produce 1 kg of extract, making the extract too expensive.{{Citation needed|date=August 2021}}<ref>Liebig's Extract of Meat Company Advertisement Card, Science History Institute Archives, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.. https://sciencehistory.libraryhost.com/repositories/3/resources/382 Accessed June 26, 2025.</ref>

==Commercialization== {{Unreferenced section|date=June 2014}} ===Liebig's Extract of Meat Company=== {{main article|Liebig's Extract of Meat Company}} Liebig went on to co-found the Liebig's Extract of Meat Company, (later Oxo), in London whose factory, opened in 1865 in Fray Bentos, a port in Uruguay, took advantage of meat from cattle being raised for their hides — at one third the price of British meat. Before that, it was the Giebert et Compagnie (April 1863).

===Bovril=== {{main article|Bovril}} In the 1870s, John Lawson Johnston invented 'Johnston's Fluid Beef', later renamed Bovril. Unlike Liebig's meat extract, Bovril also contained flavourings. It was manufactured in Argentina and Uruguay which could provide cheap cattle.

===Effects=== Liebig and Bovril were important contributors to the beef industry in South America.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

===Bonox=== {{main article|Bonox}} On the market in 1919 and created by the Fred Walker and Company Bonox is manufactured in Australia. When it was created it was often offered as an alternative hot drink with it being common to offer "Coffee, tea or Bonox".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kraft.com.au/virtualMuseum/decades/index.cfm?Page=decades1910 |title=Kraft Online: Virtual Museum - 1910s |date=2005 |website=Kraft |publisher=Kraft Foods Limited |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050311025801/http://www.kraft.com.au/virtualMuseum/decades/index.cfm?Page=decades1910 |archive-date=11 March 2005 |url-status=dead |access-date=12 May 2019 }}</ref>

==Today== Meat extracts have largely been supplanted by bouillon cubes and yeast extract. It remains as an ingredient in mid-and-higher-end bouillon cubes to provide a flavor insufficiently emulated by artificial means.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://patents.google.com/patent/US6099888A/en|title=Process for producing stock cubes}}</ref> It is typically made by a large-scale cooking system similar to what is used to make pre-packaged broth, followed by dehydration.<ref>{{cite web |title=Bone Broth Production Lines |url=https://www.coctio.com/bone-broth-soup-and-sauce-production-lines |website=Coctio}}</ref>

Some brands of meat extract, such as Oxo and Bovril, now contain yeast extract as well as meat extract. For example, the current formulation of Bovril contains 41% beef stock, 24% yeast extract, 1% dehydrated beef and salt (388 mg sodium per 100g), spice extracts and flavor enhancers among other ingredients.<ref>{{cite web|author=Justinevb |url=http://www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Bovril-Beef-Extract/11119011?sku=11119011&parentContainer=109124 |title=Bovril Beef Extract 125g (Product Information) |publisher=Ocado |date=2 August 2013 |work=Ocado website |access-date=22 June 2014}}</ref>

High purity meat extract is still available from laboratory supply companies for microbiology.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/product/sial/70164|title=Meat extract|website=sigmaaldrich.com|access-date=2 April 2023}}</ref>

==See also== {{portal|Food}} * List of dried foods * Portable soup

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Bibliography== * Günther Klaus Judel, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927194634/http://geb.uni-giessen.de/geb/volltexte/2004/1381/pdf/SdF-2003-1_2b.pdf Die Geschichte von Liebigs Fleischextrakt: Zur populärsten Erfindung des berühmten Chemikers]" (The History of Liebig's Meat Extract: On the famous chemist's most popular invention), ''Spiegel der Forschung: Wissenschaftsmagazin der Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen'' '''20''':1/2:6, October 2003. {{in lang|de}}

Category:Food ingredients Category:Dried meat Category:Beef Category:Umami enhancers Category:German inventions Category:Justus von Liebig