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💊 Doctor's Orders 1883

Meat for Invalids

Raw loin pounded with sweet and bitter almonds into a rosy pulp that does not remind you of meat.

From
The Dixie Cook-Book
Published
1883
Also printed in
1 other book
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Call poison control

Exactly as printed, 1883

MEAT FOR INVALIDS. -The following method of rendering raw meat palatable to invalids is given by good authority. To 8.7 ounces of raw meat, from the loin, add 2.6 ounces shelled sweet almonds, .17 ounces shelled bitter almonds, and 2.8 ounces white sugar-these to be beaten together in a marble mortar to a uniform pulp, and the fibers separated by a strainer. The pulp, which has a rosy hue, and a very agreeable taste, does not at all remind one of meat, and may be kept fresh for a considerable time, even in summer, in a dry, cool place. Yolk of egg may be added to it. From this pulp, or directly from the above substance, an emulsion may be prepared which will be rendered still more nutritious by adding milk.

The Dixie Cook-Book, 1883. Public domain; transcription unaltered.

So what happens if I make it?

Two problems, stacked. The meat is raw and stays raw, and the pulp is explicitly designed not to taste of meat — which means nothing about it warns the eater what they are actually eating.

The bitter almonds are the second. They contain amygdalin, which releases hydrogen cyanide. A small quantity in a large batch is not a lethal dose, but they are in a recipe fed to people who are already ill.

Notes from the 21st century

  • “Keeps even in summer” is the alarming claim. Raw minced meat with sugar, held in a cool larder, is not stable. Nothing here preserves it.
  • Bitter almonds are restricted for this reason. They are not sold for eating in the US. The almond flavouring on a modern shelf is either synthetic benzaldehyde or has the cyanide removed.
  • The roster called this one wrong. Our own candidate list titled it a children's dysentery treatment. The source heading is MEAT FOR INVALIDS and mentions neither. We corrected it.

Also in this book

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