Why it works: Beef and coffee work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 213 recipes. Both carry 2-methyl-3-(methyldithio)furan, which smells thiamin, meat. The science ↓
Beef Tea
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the beef into very small pieces, almost minced.
Place the beef in a pot with the cold water.
Simmer and season
Bring to a boil, skimming off any foam that rises.
Continue boiling until half of the water has evaporated.
Add a little salt for seasoning.
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.
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Beef + coffeetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together213 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methyl-3-(methyldithio)furan (thiamin, meat).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Beef
- Provides the meaty flavour and savoury body of the broth as its proteins and juices release into the water.
- Cold water
- Acts as the liquid that extracts flavour from the beef and becomes the broth.
The step that matters
Skimming off the foam. Foam that rises during boiling is coagulated protein and impurities. Removing it keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting rather than cloudy or scummy.
“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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