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Beef Extract

A simple liquid beef extract made by dissolving a small amount of liquid beef extract in cold sterilized water and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Beef Extract

Ingredients

Directions

Make the beef extract

  1. Add the liquid beef extract to the cold, sterilized water, then mix thoroughly.

Season and heat

  1. Season with salt, pepper, and celery salt if available.

  2. If a hot beef tea is desired, heat the mixture gently without removing the nutritious curdy flakes.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  3. Beef + celerytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Liquid beef extract
Provides concentrated beef flavour and the savoury character of the drink.

The step that matters

Heat gently if serving hot. Gentle heat warms the mixture without a hard boil. Vigorous boiling can break up the delicate protein flakes you want to keep in the liquid.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Rosemaryfits about as well
  2. Parsleyfits about as well
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper. 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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