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Beef Tea

A simple broth made by simmering gravy beef with water and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Beef Tea

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Finely chop the gravy beef, removing all skin and fat.

  2. Place the meat in a stone jar and add the water.

  3. Cover the jar with a lid and tie a piece of paper over it.

Cook and serve

  1. Stand the jar in a saucepan of boiling water for three hours or in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for one and a half hours.

  2. Remove the jar, pour the beef tea into a cup, and add salt 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

What each ingredient does

Gravy beef
Provides the meat flavour and gelatin that give the broth its body and savoury taste.
Water
Extracts the flavour and soluble proteins from the meat as it cooks slowly.

The step that matters

Keeping the jar covered and cooking gently. A lid and gentle heat, such as a boiling-water bath or low oven, keep the liquid from evaporating and let the meat release flavour slowly. Vigorous boiling would cloud the broth and reduce it.

“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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