Protose was an early vegetarian-friendly
meat analog. It was invented by
John Harvey Kellogg, the inventor of
Corn Flakes and an early American health food nut. Kellogg was trying to make a beef-like, meatless compound he could mould into steaks for his patients at his
Battle Creek, Michigan sanitarium. Kellogg made protose from nuts (primarily peanuts) and
wheat gluten. When Kellogg died, the protose patent was sold to a company called
Worthington Foods which still makes and sells protose today.
Below is a rough home-brewed approximation of protose:
1 cup
peanut butter
1 cup mashed and cooked beans
2 cups
potato or vegetable water
2 tablespoons
cornstarch
1 teaspoon chopped
onion
1 teaspoon
sage
Pinch of
salt
Mix the ingredients and then steam them for three hours over top a pot of boiling water. Stir occasionally. Let it cool and
congeal in a pan and then slice like meat.