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Savoury Beef Tea

A hearty beef broth made with lean beef, leeks, onion, carrot, celery seed, herbs, mushroom ketchup, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Savoury Beef Tea

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine the chopped beef, leeks, onion, carrot, celery seed, herbs, salt, mushroom ketchup, and water.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for several hours until flavors meld.

  3. Strain the mixture to remove solids before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together687 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Leek + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together360 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Clove + marjoramtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the main meaty flavour and body of the broth as it simmers.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds deep savoury, umami flavour to the broth.
Leeks
Contribute mild sweetness and aromatic flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer gently after bringing to a boil. A rolling boil makes the broth cloudy and can toughen the meat. Keeping it at a gentle simmer for several hours extracts flavour slowly and keeps the liquid clear.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, leek, clove, carrot, celery, thyme, marjoram):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, leek, clove, carrot, celery, thyme, marjoram. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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