On Food and Cooking

These days many restaurants and home cooks
rely on commercial meat extracts and bases
for making their sauces and soups. The
pioneer of mass-produced meat extracts was
Justus von Liebig, inventor of the mistaken
theory that searing meat seals in the juices (p.
161), who was motivated by the equally
mistaken belief that the soluble substances in
meat contain most of its nutritional value.
However, they do contain much of its savory
flavor. Today, meat extracts are made by
simmering meat scraps and/or bones in water,
then clarifying the stock and evaporating off
more than 90% of the water. The initial stock
is more than 90% water and 3–4% dissolved
meat components; the finished extract is a
viscous material that is about 20% water, 50%
amino acids, peptides, gelatin, and related
molecules, 20% minerals, mainly phosphorus
and potassium, and 5% salt. (There are also
less concentrated fluid extracts, and solid
bouillon cubes that have various natural and