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Beef Tea

A simple broth made by broiling beef, cutting it, squeezing lemon, and seasoning with salt and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,278 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Beef Tea

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Broil the beef slice on a hot broiler until the color dims on both sides.

  2. Remove from heat and cut into small pieces.

  3. Press the pieces through a lemon squeezer.

  4. Add a pinch of coarse sea salt and a little lemon juice, then stir to combine.

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 + lemontop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,278 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides the main flavor and protein; broiling browns the surface for a richer aroma.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and a bright, fresh flavor that balances the savory beef.

The step that matters

Broil only until the color dims. Overcooking meat tightens its proteins, making it tough and squeezing out juices. Stopping when the color just dims keeps the beef tender and juicy for pressing.

“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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