Old West Treatment For What Ails You -- Beef Tea

Here's something from the California Farmer and Journal of Useful Sciences from April 11, 1872:

THE BEST BEEF TEA

First, the best Beef Tea is made by boiling a piece of beef slowly, and for several hours, as in making ordinary soup. Let it get cold, skim off the grease, then boil it again, and then grate the meat into it which the tea came out of. Otherwise, there is no nourishment whatsoever in beef tea alone, 

Some solid food must be mixed with it, then it promotes digestion. Beef has two elements: carbon, and fat; nitrogen, or the thing which gives strength and makes flesh. But if we skim off the fat and take out the meat part, then there remains not one panicle of nourishment. 

Those who break bread into their soup, or take it with mashed potatoes, or any other solid food, act philosophically. Observation has shown them that their soup does them good. Millions of Customers will be supplied by somebody.

Here's something from the Truckee Republican published on January 12, 1884:

The Beef Tea Tipple.

The beef tea tipple, now all the rage in the East, has reached Omaha on its way West. As yet no Truckee saloon has taken it up. The Omaha Republican says: The seller of drinks informs the reporter to this effect, "Since the early part of last Fall, there has been a demand for beef tea at this bar. At first, we laughed at the idea of going to the trouble of making it, but now we laugh because we do make it. We sell over 100 drinks per day, and as it is a fifteen-cent drink, there is no reason why we should not smile. 

Who drinks it, you say? Why, everybody does; the man about town, who has been out with the boys, comes here in the morning and calls for beet tea; the business man comes in the afternoon and braces his system with beet tea; the temperance man who drops in with a bibulous friend takes beef-tea; and in fact is becoming a slave to the mixed bovine. 

The sick even are very sensibly forsaking the drug stores and coming here for beef tea, preferring it to the nauseating mixtures put up by the druggist and ordered by the family physician. Why, if the tea holds out, we will wreck every drugstore in the city. 

The possibilities from this are many. Beef tea is at once a tonic and food. It does not corrode the stomach and fire the brain. It does not madden, and yet it exhilarates and strengthens. Hail to the drink of the future! Hail beef tea!"

Then there's this from the Los Angeles Herald on May 14, 1898:

Beef Tea for Invalids

In giving beef tea to the Invalid, remember that the beef tea that is clear and transparent is good and useful as a stimulant; but, it is altogether worthless as a nourishment and people cannot live on it. 

A most nutritious beef broth that may be kept for a week, if the cover is left off while cooling, is made in this way: 

1) To three pounds of solid beef from the shoulder or shin, with all dried skin or any soft or bloody portions removed, add three pounds of bones from the same part of the beef and four quarts of cold water. 2) Put in a jar and cook from eight to twelve hours in a slow oven. 3) Strain through a colander and add two tablespoonfuls of salt. 4) If you are going to keep it, leave the fat on, breaking off just enough each day to allow for getting out the stock underneath. 5) Heat and give to the patient with or without crackers as desired.

From the Times Gazette published November 2, 1901:

Beef Tea.

It is the suggestion of a trained nurse, whose beef tea was most acceptable to patients. The beef should be broiled before the juice is extracted. Use a thick, lean, juicy steak. From the round, it is broiled over a clear fire for perhaps two minutes on each side, after which it is cut up into small squares, put into a saucepan, covered with cold water, and set on the back of the stove, where it should steep, not boil, for fully two hours. Remember not to add the salt until the dish is taken from the stove -- and serve it hot, unless, of course, it is to be offered as cold or iced beef tea.

Published in the Truckee Republican on November 17, 1906:

Beef Tea For the Aged.

I have often had occasion to protest against the widely hugged delusion of beef tea being a highly nutritious food. As I have stated, it is a stimulant and has the objectionable quality of rendering the bowels lax. In old age, there is an opposite natural tendency—at least, that is the rule. 

When this rule is obtained and there is weakness, we shall find in strong beef tea a most valuable medicine. But do not commit the mistake of regarding the stuff as food, says Home Notes. 

It will stimulate the body so that food can be taken; it will stimulate so that the person will feel better. But it is making him live on his vital capital -- since beef tea is no more nourishing than Brandy.

Then there's this found in the Hanford Journal (Daily) from February 22, 1907:

How to Make Beef Tea Properly

Every home nurse is supposed to know how to make beef tea, yet it is surprising how many failures are to be recorded in this apparently simple operation. The fault generally is that too little time is given to the cooking. The point to be borne in mind is that as far as possible the whole of the nutriment of the beef is to be extracted. 

The best method of doing this is to proceed as follows, says the New York Journal: Remove all the fat and skin from one pound of fresh beef, cut it up into small pieces, and put it into a stone jar with a pint of water and a little salt. Replace the lid of the jar and let it stand all night. The next morning place the jar in a saucepan of boiling water and let it simmer gently, but never boll, for five hours. Strain the fluid through a colander, lint instead of throwing away the residue of the meat pound it in a mortar into a pulp, pass it through a wire sieve, and add it to the beef tea. 

Beef tea made according to this recipe contains all the filter and albumen of the meat and is therefore much more nutritious than beef tea in the form it is usually given. 

__________________

More to come! 

Tom Correa