Why it works: Beef and tea work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 417 recipes. Both carry 2-methyl-3-(methyldithio)furan, which smells thiamin, meat. The science ↓
Thick Beef Tea
Ingredients
Directions
Make the beef tea
Strain the beef tea and pour it into a clean saucepan.
Heat the beef tea over medium heat until hot.
Sprinkle in the crushed tapioca while stirring continuously.
Let it simmer slowly for about 10 minutes until the tapioca is clear, stirring occasionally.
Finish and serve
In a bowl, beat the yolk of egg with a fork.
Gradually pour the hot beef tea into the egg yolk while stirring continuously.
Serve immediately.
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.
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Beef + teatop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together417 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methyl-3-(methyldithio)furan (thiamin, meat).
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Beef + eggtop 31% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Tea + eggtop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together821 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef tea
- Provides the main liquid and the savoury beef flavour of the dish.
- Crushed tapioca
- Thickens the beef tea as its starch swells and turns clear during simmering.
- Egg yolk
- Enriches and further thickens the broth, giving it a smoother, richer body.
The step that matters
Gradually pour the hot beef tea into the egg yolk. Adding hot liquid too fast can scramble the egg yolk into lumps. Pouring slowly while stirring gradually raises the yolk's temperature so it blends in smoothly.
“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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