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Beef-Tea, Savoury

A savory beef tea made by simmering diced beef with butter, clove, onion, salt, and water to produce a thin gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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, Savoury

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef into very small dice.

  2. In a stewpan, combine the beef, butter, clove, onion, and salt.

Make the beef tea

  1. Stir the mixture over medium heat for a few minutes until it produces a thin gravy.

  2. Add the water and let it simmer gently for 30 to 45 minutes, skimming off any fat.

  3. Strain the mixture through a sieve and cool it until needed.

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. Clove + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  3. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,847 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Beef + clovetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Solid beef
Provides the main flavour and the protein that gives the tea its body.
Butter
Adds fat that carries aroma and gives the gravy a rich mouthfeel.
Onion
Contributes savoury sweetness and aroma as it softens and releases flavour into the liquid.

The step that matters

Stirring over medium heat until a thin gravy forms. Gentle browning and softening of the beef and onion in fat builds flavour before the water is added. Heat that is too high can scorch the bits and taste bitter, while too little leaves the flavour flat.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Pepperfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, 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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