Name: Beef-tea
Ingredients: 1 lb lean gravy beef; 1½ cups water; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt

Beef-tea

Ingredients

1 lb lean gravy beef
1½ cups water
¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt

Directions

Prepare the broth

Cut the meat into small pieces, removing all fat and bone.
Place the meat in a clean saucepan and add the cold water.
Heat on the stove until boiling, then skim off any scum.
Add the salt when the water boils.
Simmer gently for 1 to 1½ hours, skimming as needed.

Strain and serve

Strain the beef tea through a fine sieve and cool.
Remove any fat from the top.
Warm the desired amount, adding more salt if necessary.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Lean gravy beef: Provides the meat flavour and gelatin that give the broth its body once simmered.
Water: Extracts flavour and collagen from the meat as it simmers slowly.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 1 to 1½ hours, skimming as needed.. Boiling vigorously emulsifies fat and fine particles into the liquid, making the broth cloudy and greasy. A gentle simmer keeps it clear, and skimming removes the scum that rises as the meat cooks.

“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.