Why it works: Beef and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,462 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓
Beef Tea
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove all fat from the beef and cut it into small pieces, about the size of a fingertip.
Score the beef to release the juices.
Assemble
Place the beef in a jar with salt, clove, peppercorns, and cold water.
Tie the jar securely.
Immerse the jar in a saucepan of water.
Cook and serve
Boil gently for 2½ hours.
Strain the mixture and remove any fat from the surface using silver paper or stale bread.
Optionally, add boiled rice or tapioca before serving.
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 + clovetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,462 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef
- Supplies the meat flavour and juices that are drawn out into the liquid.
- Cold water
- Acts as the solvent that slowly extracts flavour and juices from the meat.
- Peppercorns
- Adds a mild, warm pepper aroma to the finished broth.
- Clove
- Adds a warm, spiced aroma to the broth.
The step that matters
Boil gently for 2½ hours. A gentle simmer keeps the broth clear and lets the meat release flavour slowly. A hard, rolling boil makes the liquid cloudy and can toughen the meat.
“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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