Salisbury steak was health food before it became cafeteria nostalgia

Before becoming a 1980s TV-dinner hall of famer, Salisbury steak was a 19th-century health fad. Dr. James Salisbury looked at chopped beef and somehow saw medicine; America looked at it and covered it in gravy.

Dr. Salisbury wanted to start a high-beef-scraps diet, and apparently only missed on the "please cover it in cholesterol" attractant. Like that stinky gel sporting goods store sells to make fish want to take your bait, Americans beeline for saturated fats with their saturated fats. This hammered beef steak stands proud alongside other such classic foods originating from the United States, such as spray cheese, nachos, Irish nachos, and deep-fried Twinkies.

Some foods are invented. Salisbury steak was prescribed.

Previously:

• The soundtrack makes this 'History of the Swanson TV Dinner' video

• TV Dinner Inventor Gerry Thomas Dies

• How an overabundance of frozen turkey begat the TV Dinner

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