OT/OOP beef tea (was Re: SC - bone soup)

[Philip & Susan Troy]

kat wrote:
> 
> Adamantius writes:
> 
> > Today such dishes get less stuff (i.e. fewer herbs, ground gems, etc. ; )   )
> > added to them, at least in the European tradition, and are called
> > meat teas in English.
> 
> So THAT'S what beef tea is!  I suspected from the description that it was some sort of bouillon-type preparation...  now I know.
> 
> Thank you!!!
> 
>         - kat, oft-puzzled avid reader

Yep. Although beef tea is often made either from nasty chemical
bouillion stuff today, or some kinda mysterious flavored yeast extract
in the UK, with names like Oxo and Bisto. Real beef tea (including
places outside of Texas!) is made by scraping a piece of lean steak with
the edge of a serrated knife, to get an untrafine pulp, but to leave
behind an astonishing network of elastin and collagen fibers. Looks like
something out of "The Invisible Man". In its most basic form, the beef
tea is made by cooking the pulp, which will be pure red with virtually
no fat, or anything else, in it, either with just a bit of added water,
or no additional liquid at all, in a double boiler for a couple of
hours, as I recall. The resulting liquid is drained off the meat solids,
which now resemble an inedible hamburger made of fine sawdust, skimmed
of any fat (there generally isn't much), and then for the real party
animals a tiny bit of salt is added.

The end result is more than a bit like beef consomme, actually, but
without the complex flavor of the added aromatics and tomato, which,
obviously, aren't there. It's also lighter in body than stock, lacking
the various gelatins that would be present in a stock, which is probably
why it is deemed a good food for invalids.
 
Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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