science

Meat extract

Meat extract is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Meat extract rather than just read about it. In short: Meat extract is highly concentrated meat stock, usually made from beef or chicken. It is used to add meat flavor in cooking, and to make broth for soups and other liquid-based foods.

Key takeaways

Meat extract belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Meat extract to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Meat extract from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Meat extract is highly concentrated meat stock, usually made from beef or chicken. It is used to add meat flavor in cooking, and to make broth for soups and other liquid-based foods. Meat extract was invented by Baron Justus von Liebig, a German 19th-century organic chemist. Liebig specialised in chemistry and the classification of food and wrote a paper on how the nutritional value of a meat is lost by boiling. Liebig's view was that meat juices, as well as the fibres, contained much important nutritional value and that these were lost by boiling or cooking in unenclosed vessels. Fuelled by a desire to help feed the undernourished, in 1840 he developed a concentrated beef extract, Extractum carnis Liebig, to provide a nutritious meat substitute for those unable to afford the real thing. However, it took 30 kg of meat to produce 1 kg of extract, making the extract too expensive.

Commercialization

Liebig's Extract of Meat Company

Liebig went on to co-found the Liebig's Extract of Meat Company, (later Oxo), in London whose factory, opened in 1865 in Fray Bentos, a port in Uruguay, took advantage of meat from cattle being raised for their hides — at one third the price of British meat. Before that, it was the Giebert et Compagnie (April 1863).

Bovril

In the 1870s, John Lawson Johnston invented 'Johnston's Fluid Beef', later renamed Bovril. Unlike Liebig's meat extract, Bovril also contained flavourings. It was manufactured in Argentina and Uruguay which could provide cheap cattle.

Effects Liebig and Bovril were important contributors to the beef industry in South America.

Bonox

On the market in 1919 and created by the Fred Walker and Company Bonox is manufactured in Australia. When it was created it was often offered as an alternative hot drink with it being common to offer "Coffee, tea or Bonox".

Today Meat extracts have largely been supplanted by bouillon cubes and yeast extract. It remains as an ingredient in mid-and-higher-end bouillon cubes to provide a flavor insufficiently emulated by artificial means. It is typically made by a large-scale cooking system similar to what is used to make pre-packaged broth, followed by dehydration. Some brands of meat extract, such as Oxo and Bovril, now contain yeast extract as well as meat extract. For example, the current formulation of Bovril contains 41% beef stock, 24% yeast extract, 1% dehydrated beef and salt (388 mg sodium per 100g), spice extracts and flavor enhancers among other ingredients. High purity meat extract is still available from laboratory supply companies for microbiology.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Meat extract

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Meat extract claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Meat extract before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Meat extract ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Meat extract

In research: Meat extract appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Meat extract in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Meat extract is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Beef, Dried meat, Food ingredients, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Meat extract outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Meat extract in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Meat extract means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Meat extract out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Meat extract in simple terms?

Meat extract is highly concentrated meat stock, usually made from beef or chicken. It is used to add meat flavor in cooking, and to make broth for soups and other liquid-based foods.

Why does Meat extract matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Meat extract?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Meat extract.