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Soup

Beef Tea

A clear broth made by simmering minced beef in water, then strained and seasoned with salt and optional pepper or allspice.

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. Mince the beef and place it in an earthen vessel with the tepid water.

  2. Let it stand for one hour.

Cook and finish

  1. Slowly heat the mixture to boiling point and boil for three minutes.

  2. Strain the liquid through a colander.

  3. Stir in salt and add pepper or allspice if desired.

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 meat flavour and gelatin-rich juices that give the broth its body.
Tepid water
Draws soluble flavour and juices out of the minced beef during the standing period.

The step that matters

Slowly heat the mixture to boiling point. Gentle, gradual heating lets the meat release its juices and keeps the broth clearer. Rapid heating can cloud it and toughen the proteins.

“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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