Liebig's extract of meat
Extracto de carne de Liebig
- Date
- 1865 · confidence high
- Place
- Fray Bentos, Rio Negro, Uruguay
- Credited to
- Justus von Liebig and George Christian Giebert
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
A paste obtained by boiling and reducing beef, which exploited South American cattle without bulky transport. Its factory at Fray Bentos supplied Europe with a stock that kept for years.
Liebig described the extract in 1847 but found no cheap source of meat until Giebert, a German engineer, industrialised it in Uruguay (Liebig Extract of Meat Company, 1865).
What it led to
- the corned beef and canned meat industry
- concentrated stocks (Oxo, Bovril, cubes)
- the industrial town of Fray Bentos