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Beef Tea, Six Pints

A hearty beef broth made with lean beef, mixed vegetables, butter, and water, simmered for an hour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Tea, Six Pints

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a kettle, combine the beef, mixed vegetables, salt, pepper, butter, and 1 pint of water.

  2. Set over high heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until a thick gravy forms but does not brown.

  3. Add 7 pints of hot water and simmer gently for 1 hour.

  4. Skim off all the fat, strain through a sieve, and serve.

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 + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Walnut + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the main flavour and the protein that gives the tea its body.
Mixed vegetables
Add aromatic sweetness and savoury depth to the broth.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavour and gives the gravy a rich mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Heat the beef without browning it. Stirring over high heat only until a thick gravy forms keeps the meat and vegetables from browning. Browning would create a darker, more roasted flavour than this clear, delicate beef tea is meant to have.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, pepper, butter):

  1. Sesamefits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Black-eyed peafits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, pepper, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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