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Beef Tea

A simple beef broth made by simmering cubed beef in water, then seasoning with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Tea

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the fat from the beef and cut it into small cubes.

  2. Place the beef in an earthen dish with the cold water.

  3. Soak for 1 hour.

Simmer and strain

  1. Simmer for 2 to 3 hours, skimming carefully.

  2. Boil quickly for a few minutes, then strain.

  3. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

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

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

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 broth its body.
Cold water
Extracts flavour from the beef slowly as it heats, producing a clear liquid.

The step that matters

Skimming during the simmer. Skimming removes the foam and fat that rise as the beef cooks. Leaving them in makes the broth cloudy and greasy.

“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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