meat fact of the day:

So, I'm watching Iron Chef America: Battle Hamburger and learned a fun new meat fact from Alton Brown. I've never given much thought to Salisbury Steak. The only association I have with it is from hot lunches in elementary school. My mom always packed my lunch (thanks, mom!), so I never partook in this, but I remember the stinky, gray discs of meat with lumpy sauce in those individual cardboard containers with the holey plastic wrap over the top... I had no idea that this was perhaps a public school lunch staple because it was thought to be a health food!

James Salisbury apparently was one of the first health food advocates. He suggested eating lean ground meat and coffee three times a day, with fruits, vegetables, and starches only making up 1/3 of one's diet. According to my sources, he thought that fruits, veggies, and starches were "poisonous" to the digestive system and caused countless diseases.

Here's his recipe--

Eat the muscle pulp of lean beef made into cakes and broiled. This pulp should be as free as possible from connective or glue tissue, fat and cartilage.....The pulp should not be pressed too firmly together before broiling, or it will taste livery. Simply press it sufficiently to hold it together. Make the cakes from half an inch to an inch thick. Broil slowly and moderately well over a fire free from blaze and smoke. When cooked, put it on a hot plate and season to taste with butter, pepper, salt; also use either Worcestershire or Halford sauce, mustard, horseradish or lemon juice on the meat if desired.

And, he lived to be 85.

Maybe I'll have a different outlook next time I see one of these:


Maybe.