Meat, Fluid. This preparation consists of lean meat, in which the albumen has been changed so as to be non-coagulable by heat, and the fibrin and gelatin from their normal insoluble condition to one admitting of their being dissolved in water.
In this soluble condition, the first stage effected in stomach digestion, the several bodies are known as peptones or albuminose, and the proportion of their simple constituents remains the same as in ordinary fibrin, albumen, and gelatin.
The alteration is effected by finely mincing meat and digesting it with peptone, hydrochloric acid, and water, at a temperature of about 100° Fahr., until dissolved.
The solution is then filtered, the bitter principle, formed during the digestion, removed by the addition of a little pancreatic emulsion, and the liquor, which has been neutralised by the addition of carbonate of soda, evaporated to a thick syrup or extractive consistence.
Fluid meat is the only preparation which entirely represents, and yields the amount of nourishment afforded by, lean meat; it differs altogether from beef tea and extracts of meat, as all these contain only a small portion of the different constituents of meat. A patent has been granted to its inventor, Mr Darby.
Meat, Liebig’s Extract of. Syn. Extract of Flesh, Extractum carno. This preparation is an aqueous infusion evaporated to the consistence of a thick paste, of those principles of meat which are soluble in water.[32]
[32] “Altered as they be by the Application of Heat.” Deane and Brady, ‘Pharmaceutical Journal,’ Oct. 1866.
It is chiefly composed of alkaline phosphates and chlorides, a nitrogenous crystalline base known as kreatine, various extractive matters, which it has been surmised may have originated in the decomposition of certain nitrogenous bodies, and possibly of a small quantity of lactic acid, as it contains neither albumen nor fibrin, two of the most important and nutritious ingredients of flesh; it must not, therefore, be regarded as a concentrated form of meat. Liebig says that it requires 34 lbs. of meat to yield 1 lb. of this extract—a statement which, as Dr Pavy justly remarks, shows how completely the substance of the meat which constitutes its real nutritive portion must be excluded. This absence of direct nutrient power, now admitted by physiologists, whilst disqualifying the extract as a substitute for meat, does not, however, preclude its use in certain cases of indisposition requiring the administration of a stimulant or restorative, in which circumstances it has been found a useful and valuable remedy, and has been suggested as a partial substitute for brandy
where there is considerable exhaustion or weakness, accompanied with cerebral depression and lowness of spirits. In this latter respect its action seems analogous to strong tea.
In the vast pastures of Australia and the pampas of South America are countless herds of oxen and sheep, whose numbers far exceed the food requirements of the comparatively sparse population of those districts. The fat, horns, hoofs, bones, skins, and wool of these cattle, which form the chief part of the wealth of those countries, are exported principally to Europe. Until within a few years, however, no means had been adopted for the utilisation of the superfluous flesh of the animals, beyond employing it as a manure. By manufacturing it, however, into “extract of meat,” this waste has been remedied, and immense works for its preparation are now erected both in South America and in Australia. The process followed by the different makers, although varying in some particulars, is essentially the same, and consists in extracting by water, either hot, cold, or in the form of the steam, those portions of the meat which are soluble in that fluid, and subsequently evaporating the solution so obtained until it becomes of a proper consistence to be put into jars. The extract so obtained keeps well (if all the fat and gelatin are removed), and is most conveniently adapted for exportation. It is said that the extract as being obtained from cattle that have had English progenitors possesses a flavour superior to that which comes from South America, where the animals are of a different and inferior breed.