Beef Tea
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Cut the gravy beef into very fine pieces, removing all skin and fat.
Place the meat in a stone jar and add the water.
Cover the jar with a lid and tie a piece of paper over it.
Cook
Stand the jar in a saucepan of boiling water for three hours, or in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for one and a half hours.
Ensure the water does not cover the jar to prevent it from getting inside.
Serve
After cooking, pour the beef tea into a cup and add salt to taste.
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
- Gravy beef
- Provides the meat flavour and dissolved protein that make the broth savoury and rich.
- Water
- Extracts flavour and gelatin from the meat as it cooks slowly, forming the broth.
The step that matters
Keeping the water from covering the jar. If water enters the jar, the broth is diluted and loses concentration. Gentle, indirect heat in a sealed jar draws out flavour without boiling the liquid, so the jar must stay sealed and dry inside.
“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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