Plain Beef-tea
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the beef into very small dice or have the butcher criss-cross it.
Cover the beef with cold water and add salt.
Soak for 1 hour.
Heat and serve
Place the bowl in a saucepan of boiling water and heat until nearly boiling, without allowing it to boil.
Strain the meat through a coarse strainer.
Serve immediately with a small piece of toast.
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
- Provides the main flavour and protein that give the tea its savoury body.
- Cold water
- Draws out the beef's juices and flavour during the long soak, forming the tea.
The step that matters
Heating without boiling. Holding the liquid just below a boil keeps the meat tender and the broth clear. Boiling toughens the meat proteins and makes the tea cloudy.
“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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