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Drink

Beef Tea, or Essence of Beef

A clear broth made by simmering lean beef in water, seasoned with coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Beef Tea, or Essence of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef into small pieces.

  2. Place the beef in a wide-mouthed bottle and cork it tightly.

Cook

  1. Put the bottle in a pot of cold water with a saucer at the bottom.

  2. Heat the water gradually and let it boil slowly for 2-3 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour off the juice and season it with a little coarse sea salt.

  2. Let it cool and skim off the fat 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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Supplies the meat juices that form the drink, the main flavour and nourishment of the tea.

The step that matters

Heating the water gradually and boiling slowly. Slow, gentle heat lets juices release from the meat through the cork without the contents boiling hard. Rapid boiling can toughen the meat and cloud the liquid, so a low, steady simmer gives a clearer, more flavourful result.

“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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