1 day Ago By [email protected] (Joe Hoeffner)
If you're unfamiliar with what Salisbury steak is, you might walk down the frozen food aisle of your local supermarket and marvel at all those upscale brands offering steak as . Who knew Hungry Man could get so fancy, right? Did they see and get worried about competition? Or Well, not quite. Salisbury steak, despite the name, is not actually steak.
It's ground beef assembled into patties, cooked, then smothered in some kind of brown gravy. (This gravy is usually, but not necessarily, mushroom-based.) The dish is an offshoot of the progenitor of the hamburger and got its name from a doctor who concocted one of America's first fad diets.
The Hamburg steak, a ground beef patty, became popular in 19th century New York as the city received an influx of German immigrants — many of whom likely embarked on the journey to America from the port of Hamburg. Auguste Escoffier, the legendary French chef, considered it a worthy example of haute cuisine; it became known as the "hamburger" once it was placed between two pieces of bread. And yet, although Salisbury steak is essentially a Hamburg patty with gravy, its inventor was less concerned with what was appetizing and more concerned with how healthy it might be.
James H. Salisbury invented the Salisbury steak -- but had some weird ideas In some ways, Dr. James Henry Salisbury was a man ahead of his time.
He was one of the early advocates of germ theory in an era where many doctors still didn't wash their hands or wear gloves, and he recognized the importance of eating good, nutritious food. He just also happened to believe that all sorts of ailments were caused by vegetables releasing toxins into the digestive system and that feeding Union soldiers in the Civil War nothing but coffee and ground beef would keep their chronic diarrhea in check. He believed that humans were meant to eat meat first and foremost and that all other foods, if not eaten in moderation, were dangerous.
(In this way, he was kind of the Liver King of the 19th century.) Salisbury developed a recipe for what he called "muscle pulp of beef," which he published in a book with the catchy title "The Relation of Alimentation and Disease." He recommended people eat the hamburger dish three times a day, a number which even those with a weakness for TV dinners might find punishing.
Nevertheless, his ideas proved popular, especially once an Englishwoman named Elma Stuart published books promoting his views. Although he died in 1905, Salisbury would surely be glad to see his dish become a lunchroom staple — although he'd probably be a little worried about the mushrooms. Recommended.
