Beef-Tea

Ingredients

• a pound of good lean gravy-beef
• a pint of cold water
• a little salt

Method

1. 1

   Cut the beef into little pieces, pour over cold water, and add salt.

2. 2

   Squeeze the pieces with a fork to extract juices.

3. 3

   Place in an enamelled saucepan by the fire, heat gradually without boiling for 1.5 to 2 hours.

4. 4

   Strain and press the meat to extract goodness.

5. 5

   Remove fat by skimming or letting it cool.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Common-sense papers on cookery (1880) by A. G. Payne, page 98. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

beef-tea. With burning eyes and bursting heart the thankful wife turns away to give the necessary orders, not for- getful, let us trust, of her vows vowed, of her resolutions v 242 Common-sense Cookery. made, or of the Great Physician who alone can cause the blind to see and the lame to walk. Like a calm sea to the tempest-tost, like a draught of water after parching thirst, like a bed of down to the wearied traveller, do these sweet hours of con- valescence follow after those weary ones of watching, when hope deferred made the heart sick — “ Oh ! these were hours, when thrilling joy repaid A long, long course of darkness, doubts, and fears.” What pleasure, too, to watch the patient take his first cup of beef-tea or his first chop with evident en- joyment, and to see the faint tinge of colour return to the pale cheeks, foretelling of returning health and strength, as surely as the first blush of dawn upon the eastern mountain-tops foretells the coming day ! Again, too, the refreshment taken, the first long sound sleep, nature’s great restorer, how different to watch now, to when the restless patient tossed and turned and muttered, and seemed to suffer more than when awake ! There is something very beautiful in a calm and tranquil sleep — * 1 An infant when it gazes on the light, A child the moment when it drains the breast, * # * » -* Feel rapture, but not such true joy are reaping As they who watch o’er what they love while sleeping. Food for Invalids. * 243 “For there it lies, so tranquil, so beloved, All that it hath of life with us is living, So gentle, stirless, helpless, and unmoved, And all unconscious of the joy ’tis giving.” But let us leave the convalescent chamber with the watcher and the watched, and descend to the kitchen, and see what we there can do to help on the recovery so happily going on above. First let us take that probably most valuable of all invalids’ preparations — viz., beef-tea. The quickest and best method of preparing good beef-tea is as follows : — Take a pound of good lean gravy-beef, cut it up into little pieces, pour over them a pint of cold water, and add a little salt

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.