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Beef Tea
1 pint cold water 1 pound ground lean beef Salt and pepper Choose beef from the under side of the round, as that contains the greatest strength, and have it ground. Put it in a closely covered saucepan and let it stand on the range, without boiling, for twenty minutes; then boil for six minutes; strain and season. OATMEAL GRUEL No. 1 1 tablespoon oatmeal 3 tablespoons water 1 pint milk or water Pinch of salt Mix the oatmeal with the three tablespoons of water. Boil the pint of milk or water and into it pour the oatmeal slowly. Season and boil for five minutes, stirring constantly. OATMEAL GRUEL No. 2 1 quart water 3 tablespoons oatmeal Milk Sugar 1/2 tablespoon butter Boil the water and into it stir the oatmeal; boil until it thickens, stirring constantly. Then pour it into a double boiler and let it cook for three or four hours. Thin with rich milk; strain carefully; add the butter and sweeten to taste. If sugar is not desired, salt may be substituted.
Three invalid-cookery preparations: an extraction of raw beef and two oatmeal gruels. None is difficult, but each depends on temperature control that the original describes in the vocabulary of a coal range.
- "On the range, without boiling"This means a cooler part of a wood or coal stove, where a covered pan stays hot but well short of a simmer. On a modern hob use the lowest setting, or stand the covered pan in a water bath. The point is to draw the soluble matter out of the meat without setting the proteins, which is presumably why the water starts cold.
- The six-minute boilDo not skip it. The twenty-minute stand may never reach a temperature that makes raw beef safe, and the boil at the end is the step you can rely on. Bring it to a full rolling boil.
- The cut"Under side of the round" is bottom round, lean and cheap. Ask for it coarsely ground, or grind trimmed bottom round yourself. Pre-packed lean mince works; avoid anything above about 10 percent fat, since the fat only has to be skimmed off again.
- What you actually getA pound of beef and a pint of water yields roughly a cup and a half to two cups of thin, brown, savoury liquid, and a pan of grey exhausted meat that is worth nothing. Beef tea is essentially salted meat water: it carries flavour, gelatin and minerals but very little protein. Treat it as a light broth, not as nourishment.
- OatmealIn books of this period "oatmeal" usually meant cut or coarse ground oats rather than the rolled flakes now sold under the name. Steel-cut oats or pinhead oatmeal give the intended result. Rolled oats will work in No. 1 but break down quickly and need less time.
- Gruel No. 2 and the long cookThree or four hours in a double boiler is not a mistake; it dissolves the starch completely so the strained gruel is smooth and almost creamy. Top up the lower pan with boiling water as it evaporates. A slow cooker on low does the same job unattended.
- StrainingBoth the beef tea and Gruel No. 2 should go through a fine sieve or a double layer of muslin. Chill the beef tea and lift off the set fat before reheating.
- KeepingThese are low-acid, lightly seasoned liquids that spoil fast. Refrigerate within an hour and use within two days, or freeze. They are not shelf-stable.
Beef tea was the standard sickroom drink of the nineteenth century, promoted heavily after Justus von Liebig marketed his meat extract in the 1860s on the theory that the soluble parts of beef carried its strength. Analysis eventually showed the opposite, that the nourishing protein stays behind in the discarded meat, and by the early twentieth century physicians were describing beef tea as a stimulant and flavouring rather than a food. Cookbooks kept printing it anyway. Gruel had an even longer run: thin oatmeal in water or milk was the first thing offered to the convalescent, the very young and the very old across Britain and America for centuries, and the two versions here mark the difference between a quick bedside cup and the long-cooked, strained, buttered version made for someone who could take nothing heavier.