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Beef Tea

A simple beef broth made by simmering beef, water, salt, and cloves, then strained and served with toasted bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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

  1. Chop the beef into small pieces.

  2. Place the beef in a pot with the cold water.

Simmer

  1. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes, skimming constantly.

  2. Season with salt.

  3. Add the cloves.

  4. Continue to simmer for another 30 minutes.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain through a muslin sieve.

  2. Serve with toasted bread.

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 + 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

Gravy beef
Releases its flavour and body into the cold water during slow simmering, forming the broth.
Cloves
Adds a warm, aromatic spice note to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming constantly during the first simmer. Foam and fat that rise to the surface during simmering can make the tea cloudy and greasy. Skimming them off as they form keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting.

“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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