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Beef Tea

A simple beef tea made by simmering beef with water, celery, and onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Beef Tea

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef into small pieces.

  2. Place the beef in a saucepan and add enough water to cover it.

Steep and serve

  1. Heat on the stove and let it steep (do not boil) for 6 to 7 hours.

  2. Strain the mixture and flavor with celery, onion, or any approved seasoning.

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 + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Beef + celerytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 the savory extract that dissolves into the liquid during steeping.
Water
Acts as the extraction medium that draws flavor out of the beef over long, gentle heat.
Celery
Adds a fresh, herbal aroma to the finished tea after straining.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the finished tea after straining.

The step that matters

Keep the mixture below a boil while it steeps. Boiling makes the liquid cloudy and can toughen and dull the meat's flavor, while gentle heat over hours draws out a clearer, more delicate extract.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Cuminfits about as well
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Pepperfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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