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Peptonised Beef-tea

A fermented beef broth made by peptonising beef with pancreatic liquor or peptonising powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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

  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 peptonising powder.

  2. Stand in a warm place for 3 hours, shaking occasionally.

  3. Boil quickly for 2-3 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-tea
Forms the liquid base that carries the dissolved beef flavour and nourishment.
Finely minced beef
Adds protein and flavour, and the paste releases more of its contents into the liquid.
Liquor pancreaticus or peptonising powder
Enzymes that break down meat proteins into smaller, more digestible peptides.

The step that matters

Standing in a warm place for 3 hours. The enzymes need warmth and time to break down the meat proteins. Too cold and the process stalls; too hot and the enzymes can be destroyed. Shaking keeps the enzymes evenly mixed through the liquid.

“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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