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Drink

Peptonised Beef-tea

A beverage made by steeping finely minced beef in water, then adding peptonising agent and boiling briefly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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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 ↓

Peptonised Beef-tea

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef tea

  1. Pour the beef tea into a jug, leaving the meat behind.

  2. Rub the meat into a paste and return it to the beef tea.

  3. Let it stand until cool enough to swallow.

Peptonise and finish

  1. Add the liquor pancreaticus or prepared peptonising powder.

  2. Stand in a warm place for three hours, shaking occasionally.

  3. Boil quickly for two to three minutes, then strain.

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. Beef + teatop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together417 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methyl-3-(methyldithio)furan (thiamin, meat).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the protein and meat flavour that the beef tea carries into the drink.
Liquor pancreaticus
Enzymes that break down meat proteins into smaller, more digestible peptides.

The step that matters

Boil quickly for two to three minutes, then strain. Boiling stops the enzyme action once the standing time is complete, so the liquid does not keep breaking down protein. Straining removes the remaining meat solids for a smooth drink.

“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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