Food History
SALISBURY STEAK
One of the earliest of the 'health food fadists', Dr. James H. Salisbury, a 19th century
English/American physician (1823-1905), wrote 'The Relation of Alimentation and
Disease'. He believed that diet was the main factor governing our health, so he created a
special food and diet for his patients suffering from anemia, colitis, gout, rheumatism,
arteriosclerosis, tuberculosis, and asthma.
He believed that vegetables and starchy foods could produce substances in the digestive
system which poison and paralyze the tissues and can cause heart disease, tumors, mental
illness and tuberculosis. He claimed our teeth are "meat teeth" and our digestive systems
designed to digest lean meat, and those vegetables, fats, starches and fruit should only be
1/3 of our diet. Starch was digested slowly, so it would ferment in the stomach and produce
vinegar, acid, alcohol and yeast, all of which were poisonous to our systems. His cure for
this was his special diet, including Salisbury Steak, which should be eaten 3 times a day,
together with lots of hot water to rinse out the digestive system
Here is 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."