Beef Tea

[Yoda]

So my 8 y.o. daughter, Freya, considers herself quite the expert on things British and today I had expressed interest in some angle of fasting yet staying grounded and I was thinking of getting back into tomato juice and she suggested to follow the UK lead and drink some beef tea. I don't eat beef, so I brewed up a cup of 'chicken tea' with half a knorr cube and I was impressed... the salt plus the critter vibe did definitely ground me.

 

Question for the UK folks: does beef tea exist? What is it made of? She swears that the little heros and heroines in her books always pine for their beef tea when they get lost.

[Onigiri]

I am English but I have never had the beef tea mentioned in novels I think it was drunk a lot in past times (maybe in the war?) but now we have this

 

http://www.unilever.co.uk/ourbrands/foods/bovril.asp

 

which can be spread on toast or made into a drink. I quite like it!

 

Recipe!

 

http://www.iofm.net/community/recipes/Drinks/beeftea.htm

[mYTHmAKER]

I am English but I have never had the beef tea mentioned in novels I think it was drunk a lot in past times (maybe in the war?) but now we have this

 

http://www.unilever.co.uk/ourbrands/foods/bovril.asp

 

which can be spread on toast or made into a drink. I quite like it!

 

Recipe!

 

http://www.iofm.net/community/recipes/Drinks/beeftea.htm

 

Sounds like bulion soup to me.

This is just another misnomer calling bullion tea.

Bulion = stock5 [stok] noun liquid obtained by boiling meat, bones etc and used for making soup etc

Tea = any of various infusions prepared from the leaves, flowers, etc., of other plants, and used as beverages or medicines

Call in the Vegetarian clean up squad

[i_am_sam]

Sounds like bulion soup to me.

This is just another misnomer calling bullion tea.

Bulion = stock5 [stok] noun liquid obtained by boiling meat, bones etc and used for making soup etc

Tea = any of various infusions prepared from the leaves, flowers, etc., of other plants, and used as beverages or medicines

Call in the Vegetarian clean up squad

 

So Bovril Tea is boullion. I'm British and I don't know anybody that drinks it, more usually used as a spread though Marmite (yeast extract) is more popular/prevalent - the Aussies have an inferior version called vegemite..

 

I think Onigiri is right, throwback to the war.

 

I prefer miso.

[karen]

Yoda, real beef bone broth (made from grass-fed beef) is a great nourishment, but bouillon has very little in common with the real thing. It's loaded with MSG and nasty table salt. Try some homemade beef broth with some crystal salt and see how that grabs ya .

 

Broth is Beautiful

[Ian]

Question for the UK folks: does beef tea exist? What is it made of? She swears that the little heros and heroines in her books always pine for their beef tea when they get lost.

 

Um, yes, confirming that the nearest thing these days would be Bovril. You might just wanna boil down a couple of cows in the back yard.

[Onigiri]

I had a look, Yoda, and found beef tea in 'The Railway Children' and 'The Secret Garden', both very well known children's books here. Actually, I think I should revise the war comment. Meat wouldn't have been so available in the war probably. Pre-war and possibly only for those who could afford to make drinks out of steak.

[i_am_sam]

[Yoda]

You might just wanna boil down a couple of cows in the back yard.

 

 

She's a fan of both Railway Children and Secret Garden... thanks for the updates, I'll let her know that it's retro but still kickin'.

 

Also from the wiki on Bovril:

 

The first part of the product's name comes from Latin bos (genitive bovis) meaning "ox" or "cow". The -vril comes from Bulwer-Lytton's once-popular 1870 "lost race" novel, The Coming Race (also reprinted as Vril: The Power of the Coming Race), in which a subterranean humanoid race have mental control over, and devastating powers from, an energy fluid named "Vril."

 

Dude.

 

 

[karen]

Bovril is MSG city-- a nice little neurotoxin with your tea and toast. Not sure that'll be enough to control the human race, but it's a start.

[joeblast]

I just had to laugh my ass off at the concept of beef tea

[Uncle Fester]

.

Edited September 19, 2021 by darebak

[Ian]

Recipes here

[Yoda]

So I asked Freya about the context of beef tea in her books and she says it's what the doctors would make sick people drink back then.

 

We have "chicken soup" over here as the thing for sick folks back in the day, and occasionally people remember to brew up some soup for the occasion these days.

 

Maybe the salt is supposed to help dry you out or something.

[Onigiri]

So I asked Freya about the context of beef tea in her books and she says it's what the doctors would make sick people drink back then.

 

We have "chicken soup" over here as the thing for sick folks back in the day, and occasionally people remember to brew up some soup for the occasion these days.

 

Maybe the salt is supposed to help dry you out or something.

 

Yes, that's right, it was supposed to be fortifying originally. Nourishing meat juices, protein for healing I guess?

 

I think the salt's good because you know if you have an upset stomach you have to put salt and sugar in the get the balance back? Electrolytes or something. We buy something called Dioralyte now for that.

Edited February 19, 2008 by Onigiri