Name: Essence of Beef Tea
Ingredients: ¼ pound essence of beef; 3 cups water; 2-3 slices onion; 1-2 sprigs parsley; 1-2 leaves celery (optional); 2 teaspoons coarse sea salt; 1 teaspoon sugar

Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Essence of Beef Tea

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the essence

Melt the essence of beef by placing it near the fire.
Pour the melted essence into a saucepan.

Make and serve the tea

Add 3 cups of water, onion, parsley, celery, salt, and sugar.
Pass the mixture through a colander and serve.
For a stronger flavor, use 2 cups of water per ounce of essence and adjust the seasoning accordingly.

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.

Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,092 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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

Essence of beef: Provides concentrated beef flavor, the main savoury character of the tea.
Onion: Adds a gentle aromatic sweetness that rounds out the broth.
Sugar: Adds mild sweetness that balances the savoury beef flavor.