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Drink

Beef Tea

A simple beef tea made by simmering lean beef in cold water until the liquid turns rich red‑brown.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Beef Tea

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Soak the meat in cold water for a few moments.

  2. Cook gently over low heat, stirring slowly with a spoon.

  3. When the water turns bright red and the meat looks pale, continue cooking until the liquid is a rich red-brown.

  4. Remove from heat and strain the liquid.

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

Lean beef
Provides the meat flavour and the colour that develops as the liquid cooks down.
Cold water
Extracts the soluble flavour and colour from the meat as it heats gently.

The step that matters

Cooking gently over low heat. Keeping the heat low and stirring slowly extracts the meat's flavour and colour without toughening or scorching it. High heat would make the meat firm and tough and could burn the liquid.

“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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