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Soup

Beef Tea

A clear broth made by simmering lean beef with water, salt, allspice, and optional onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef into small pieces.

  2. Place the beef in a saucepan with cold water, salt, and allspice.

Make the broth

  1. Slowly bring to a boil, skimming carefully.

  2. Simmer for 1 hour.

  3. Strain the liquid before serving.

  4. Add a chopped onion if desired.

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. Allspice + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,270 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Beef + allspicetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,940 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Supplies the main flavor and body of the broth.
Allspice
Adds a warm, spiced aroma to the broth.
Small onion
Adds mild sweetness and aroma as it simmers in the broth.

The step that matters

Slowly bring to a boil, skimming carefully. Heating gently lets foam and coagulated proteins rise to the surface where they can be skimmed off. A hard, rapid boil breaks them up and fat into the liquid, leaving the broth cloudy and greasy.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, allspice):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Horseradishfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, allspice. 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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