Meat extract is a paste with a highly concentrated meaty flavor. Cooks often flavor soups and sauces with meat extract. Food manufacturers use beef extract or chicken extract in making bouillon cubes. When dissolved in hot liquid, these cubes produce a fragrant broth.
Food manufacturers make meat extract by boiling fresh, lean meat in a vacuum kettle. They boil the meat until it loses nearly all its color and the water turns brown. Then they remove the meat and boil the juice again until most of the liquid has evaporated. As the remaining extract cools, it forms a paste. Meat extract has a yellowish-brown color, and a pleasant, meaty odor and flavor.
Meat extract has little food value, though it does contain some protein and minerals. The meat left after boiling, even though flavorless, usually contains more food value than the extract. To add to the extract’s food value, sometimes the boiled meat is ground or powdered and put back in the broth.
