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Soup

Another Beef Tea

A simple beef broth made by simmering diced lean beef with salt, flour, pepper, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,971 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Another Beef Tea

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the beef into small dice.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the beef, salt, flour, and pepper.

  3. Pour in the cold water and let it sit for 1-2 hours.

Simmer

  1. Place the saucepan on the fire and bring it slowly to a boil.

  2. Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour.

  3. If too much liquid evaporates, add a little hot water.

  4. Skim off any fat that rises to the surface.

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

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

  2. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Provides the meat flavor and dissolved protein that gives the tea its body.
Flour
Thickens the liquid slightly so the tea has a little more body.
Salt
Seasons the broth and brings out the beef flavor.

The step that matters

Bring it slowly to a boil. Heating gently while the beef sits in cold water lets its juices and flavor draw out into the liquid. A fast boil would tighten the meat fibers and leave the tea cloudier and less flavorful.

“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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