💊 Doctor's Orders 1911

Beef Juice

Beef broiled two minutes and pressed — warm raw serum, for invalids and infants.

From: The Butterick Cook Book
Published: 1911
Also printed in: 3 other books
Yikes Scale: Yikes

Exactly as printed, 1911

When much nourishment must be given in small compass, the best nurses now prepare beef juice. This is made of the round of beef cut at least an inch thick. Take a piece of the meat about four inches square, place it in a wire broiler, and broil it over a bright fire until both sides have been browned and the meat has been well warmed through to start the juices. If the fire is bright, two minutes of broiling will generally be sufficient. Lay the beef on a plate, sprinkle it with salt, cut it in pieces, place in a small piece of cheesecloth or a presser, and squeeze out all the juice. About three tablespoons of juice will usually result from a piece of meat the size mentioned.

Sufficient juice for two servings is generally prepared at one time, and the second portion will, of course, require warming. This must be done very carefully, as too high a degree of heat will cause the juice to coagulate. Place the juice in a cup, set the cup in boiling water, stir the juice constantly until it is a little above blood heat, and then serve.

The Butterick Cook Book, 1911. Public domain; transcription unaltered.

So what happens if I make it?

Two minutes over a bright fire browns the outside and warms the interior just enough to loosen the juices. The inside stays raw, which is the entire intent.

The book's own warning is the giveaway: heat coagulates the juice, so it cannot be brought up to temperature. The serum proteins set well below the point where anything would be killed.

Notes from the 21st century

It is mostly water. Beef juice and beef tea deliver very little protein. The nourishment they were credited with was largely imagined.
“The best nurses now” dates it. This was current professional practice, not a folk survival. It is what a trained nurse in 1911 would have done.
Fed to infants too. Beef juice appears in period infant-feeding advice, which compounds every part of the problem.

Also in this book

Mock Turtle à la Marion Harland — Fake turtle eggs, rolled from hard-boiled yolks and the calf's own brains, into little marbles.

Don't take our word for it. The complete book is online, free and searchable.

Read the original page →

More doctor's orders

See all

Opium, Laudanum (antidotes)

The antidote table's advice for opium and laudanum — emetic draught, vinegar and water, “dashing cold water on chest and face, walking up and down for two or three hours.”

💊 Doctor's Orders Call poison control

The 20th Century Home Cook Book · 1906

Meat for Invalids

Raw loin beaten in a marble mortar with sweet and bitter almonds and sugar, into a pulp with “a rosy hue, and a very agreeable taste.” Said to keep “even in summer.”

💊 Doctor's Orders Call poison control

The Dixie Cook-Book · 1883

Mercury, Chloride of Calomel

One grain of mercury chloride twice a day as an alterative, four to five as a laxative. The book calls it “a most dangerous medicine” and prints the doses anyway.

💊 Doctor's Orders Call poison control

The 20th Century Home Cook Book · 1906