Battle Creek Sanitarium Protose

A Meat Substitute from 1904

Anyone care for a slab of fake meat? Doesn’t it look appetizing?

Honestly, though, whose idea was this?

I know I polled the audience about what we should make from Healthful Cookery by Mrs. Ella Eaton Kellogg of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. You all picked Nut and Veg Roast (Oh right, it was you guys who put me up to this). Well, guess what? It had this one ingredient called Protose, which was a fake meat substitute from the early 1900s.

“Meatless Day Problems,” Fort Worth Telegram (Forth Worth, Texas)19 March 1935, p. 13; digital images, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 15 June 2025)

Protose was produced in the “scientific kitchen” at the “Sani” in Battle Creek, Michigan. Those cans of fake meat are long gone, so the first part of my journey was to make some from scratch. The closest recipe I could find (that matched Mrs. Kellogg’s description of the “Sani’s” creation) was from a 1924 cookbook Diet for Children (And Adults) And the Kalorie Kids by Lulu Hunt Peters. Both Lulu and Ella had their hands in specialized diets in the early 1900s. As far as I can tell, they were pioneering meat substitutes and calorie counting. Ella, specifically, was big into pure eating and temperance. More about her, next time.

Here was the method. I know you are dying to make this at home.