Why it works: Beef and mutton are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,373 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Mixed Beef Tea
Ingredients
Directions
Make the broth
Combine the beef, mutton, and veal in a saucepan.
Add 3 pints of water and bring to a boil.
Skim off any foam that rises to the surface.
Reduce heat and let it simmer for 4 hours.
Strain the mixture to extract the juices.
Serve
Serve the beef tea with dry 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
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.
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Beef + muttontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,373 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Beef + vealtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,784 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
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Mutton + vealtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,394 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef
- Provides the main meat flavor and the juices that make up the tea.
- Mutton
- Adds additional meat flavor and richness to the broth.
- Veal
- Adds mild meat flavor and body to the broth.
The step that matters
Skim off the foam. Foam that rises during the initial boil contains impurities and proteins. Removing it keeps the tea clear and prevents a cloudy, scummy flavor.
“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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