protose

English

Etymology

Coined by John Harvey Kellogg, the inventor, and used as a brand name by the Sanitas Nut Food Company, Battle Creek Foods, and Worthington Foods. Apparently from protein +‎ -ose.

Noun

protose (uncountable)

1. (historical) A meat substitute made chiefly of wheat gluten and peanuts, popular in the early twentieth century.
   • 1914, Jacob Arnbrecht, Hygienic Cook Book, International Publishing Association, page 72:

     Cut a can of protose lengthwise in two; put in a pan, fill one-fourth full with hot water, and bake one hour.

   • 1917, Anna Lindlahr, The Nature Cure Cook Book, 5th edition, The Nature Cure Publishing Co., page 273:

     From the viewpoint of our low protein diet, gluten flour and protose are positively dangerous.

   • 1988, John Weightman (tr.), translation of Jean Verdenal's letter to T. S. Eliot dated 1912 February 5, in The Letters of T. S. Eliot, volume I (Valerie Eliot, ed.), Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, →ISBN, page 31:

     I see Prichard occasionally for lunch in a vegetarian restaurant…. The dishes have strange names, like those of some unknown religion; initiates think nothing at all of ordering ‘a protose of peppers’ [?] or ‘a nuttalene’ [?]. These names, smacking of organic chemistry, correspond to substances which pretend to be meat without being so […]

Anagrams

• poorest, pooters, postero-, stooper, troopes