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Beef Tea

A simple beef tea made by simmering beef, parsley, salt, and pepper in cold water overnight.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Beef Tea

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Remove the bone and fat from the beef, then cut the meat into 1‑inch square pieces.

  2. Place the meat in a basin or jar and season lightly with salt and pepper. Add the parsley.

  3. Pour in 1 pint of cold water and cover tightly.

Cook slowly and finish

  1. Place in a 400°F (200 °C) oven for about 12 hours, preferably overnight.

  2. In the morning, remove any fat from the surface and discard the meat.

  3. The liquid can be warmed for use without boiling.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beef + parsleytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,866 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Hough or shin of beef
Collagen-rich cut that breaks down into gelatin, giving the broth body and a rich meaty flavor.

The step that matters

Long, covered cooking in the oven. Slow, gentle heat over many hours draws collagen and flavor from the meat into the water. The tight cover keeps the liquid from evaporating, so the broth stays concentrated.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Rosemaryfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper. 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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