Beef Tea
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the beef
Choose good gravy beef, such as steak or topside. Remove the fat and skin.
Cut the beef into thin strips and shred quickly with a sharp knife, or use a mincing machine.
Make the beef tea
Put the shredded meat, cold water, and salt into a saucepan. Let it stand for 15 minutes to soak.
Heat slowly, stirring gently all the time. Cook until the liquid turns a rich red-brown.
Strain through a fine wire strainer. Remove any grease by drawing a piece of paper across the top.
Serve immediately. Do not allow the beef tea to boil, or it will be spoiled.
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
- Gravy beef
- Provides the meat flavour and colour that give the beef tea its body and rich red-brown tone.
- Cold water
- Draws the juices out of the shredded meat during soaking and gentle heating.
The step that matters
Heating the beef tea gently. Heating slowly while stirring keeps the liquid clear and prevents the proteins from toughening and clouding. Boiling makes the beef tea cloudy and spoils its delicate flavour, so the liquid should only be heated until it turns red-brown.
“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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