Beef Tea
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the meat
Shred the meat as finely as possible, removing all fat, sinew, and skin.
Combine the meat with cold water and salt in a jar or basin; let it stand for at least 30 minutes.
Cook
Cover the jar with white paper or a close-fitting lid and place it in a saucepan of boiling water.
Boil for at least 2 hours.
Strain and serve
Strain the beef tea into a jug or large cup, removing any surface fat.
Add more salt if needed and serve hot or cold.
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
- Lean beef
- Provides the meat flavour and the savoury protein that makes the broth rich.
- Cold water
- Extracts flavour and soluble compounds from the meat as it heats gently.
The step that matters
Shred the meat finely and remove all fat. Fine shredding exposes more surface so more flavour leaches into the water. Fat left in would make the broth greasy and cloudy on the surface.
“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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