Beef Tea
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Cut the gravy-beef into very fine pieces, removing all skin and fat.
Place the meat in a stone jar with ½ pint of water.
Cover the jar with a lid and tie a piece of paper over it.
Cook
Stand the jar in a saucepan of boiling water for 3 hours, or in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1.5 hours.
Ensure the water does not cover the jar to prevent water from getting inside.
Serve
After cooking, pour the beef tea into a cup and add salt to taste.
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
What each ingredient does
- Gravy-beef
- Provides the meat flavour and body that give the beef tea its savoury character.
- Water
- Extracts the flavour and soluble protein from the meat as it cooks slowly.
The step that matters
Keep the water below the jar's rim during cooking. If water enters the jar it dilutes the liquid, so the beef tea tastes weaker and less concentrated. A gentle, sealed, indirect heat draws flavour out of the meat without boiling it hard.
“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.
More beef tea recipes
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.