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Drink

Beef Tea, or Essence of Beef

A simple beef broth made by simmering beef in water and seasoning with salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Beef Tea, or Essence of Beef

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef into small pieces.

  2. Place the beef in a pot with water.

Simmer and serve

  1. Simmer gently for 2 hours.

  2. Strain the liquid and season with salt.

  3. Serve warm.

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

Beef
Releases flavor and gelatin into the water as it simmers, giving the broth body and savoriness.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 2 hours. A gentle simmer extracts flavor and collagen slowly, while a rolling boil makes the broth cloudy and greasy and can toughen the meat.

“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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