Is Beef Tea Making A Comeback?

Beef Tea Advertisement c. 1900 

First, before talking about Beef Tea making a comeback, let's talk about how to make it.  Below is a recipe from The Modern Housewife magazine, 1851, by Alexis Soyer:

Soyer’s New Way of Making Beef Tea.

"Cut a pound of solid beef into very small dice, which put into a stewpan, with a small pat of butter, a clove, two butter onions, and a salt-spoonful of salt, stir the meat round over the fire for a few minutes, until it produces a thin gravy, then add a quart of water, and let it simmer at the corner of the fire for half an hour, skimming off every particle of fat, when done pass through a sieve. I have always had a great objection to passing broth through a cloth, as it frequently quite spoils its flavor."

Ingredients:

• 1 lb lean beef
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 whole clove
• 2 pearl onions
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 quart of water

Instructions:

• Cut 1 lb of lean beef into 1/2 inch pieces. 
• Place the cut beef pieces, 2 tablespoons of butter, 1 whole clove, 2 pearl onions, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt in a pot with 1/2 quart of water.
• Cook over medium heat.
• Stir for a few minutes until the meat releases its juices.
• Add the other 1/2 quart of water and bring it to a simmer. 
• Reduce the heat to a very low simmer.
• Cover and cook for 30 minutes.
• After the 30 minutes, pour through a strainer. 
• What is strained out can be used however you like.
• Let the beef tea cool. 
• As it cools, the fat will solidify and rise to the top. 
• Skim off the fat. 
• If allowed to chill, more fat will solidify and can be skimmed off.
• Reheat the skimmed beef tea to the drinking temperature and serve.

A Basic Recipe:

• Simmer beef on the stovetop for 30–45 minutes.
• Fry beef with butter. 
• Add onion and a clove just before adding water.
• You can flavor it with spices, herbs, butter, pearl onions, and carrots to your taste.
• Boil it with some salt in water.
• Distill the concentrated liquid beef.

I'm told it's not really like a beef bouillon or beef stock because it's much lighter in flavor and color. Supposedly, it differs from beef broth or bone broth because it's made by steeping meat and not the bones. But, several articles on Beef Tea also refer to it as "Beef Broth." Also, since it is not considered a soup, it should not be served in a soup bowl. It should be served like coffee in a cup. 

Was Beef Tea Served In Old West Saloons?

So now, if you were in the Old West, could you have seen someone sitting in a saloon drinking Beef Tea, and maybe thinking they were simply drinking coffee? Yes. That answers the question that I've gotten from several of you. Yes, believe it or not, Beef Tea was served in some saloons as a celebrated new option to booze all over the West by the 1880s.  

In the Weekly Calistogian newspaper, the following was published on January 2, 1884:

THE NEW BEVERAGE.

It is not often that saloon fashions can be approved. But one is “taking” like wildfire now, which should be commended by all people. It is the introduction and popular use of a new beverage — but not a new article of consumption. It is nothing less than Beef Tea. 

A few years ago, some fashionable people in the East adopted a custom which was prevalent theretofore in Europe, of offering to guests bouillon instead of coffee, tea, or wine. It was a brilliant idea, for this delicate and stimulating soup, when properly prepared, has no soup-equal as a nourisher. 

Beef Tea, being an own cousin to this rich soup, has seconded its advent into the fashionable world by appearing upon the saloon bar, and thus the custom of the upper ten has found its counterpart in the popular refreshment stand. 

The barkeeper at the East laughed at the idea of his serving anything like soup by the wine-glass full. It was a matter of surprise to himself when, in a brief time, in answer to the demands of the public, he was kept busy passing it over the counter to his customers. It is now the most popular drink known in the East. 

The busnessman has forsaken his brandy and water, and adhered unto Beef Tea; the hasty customer finds time for its service; the toper braces up a weakened system by literal potations of Beef Tea; the friend who drinks because his other friend asks him, takes Beef Tea; the social drinker, the steady drinker, the persistent tippler, the old sot, the juvenile beginner, all take Beef Tea. 

Here is a revelation for the temperance people, a sudden and unexpected recruit for the prohibitionists. King Alcohol, who has so long defied the assaults of the teetotallers, is assailed within his stronghold by his own forces. There has come into his camp an infant David who will slay the Goliath of drink, if the fashion holds out. 

Beef Tea is a stimulant but it does not intoxicate. It gives no headaches and empties no pockets; it does not murder and puts no people in poor-houses; it drives no man to insanity and fills no suicide's grave; it brings no woe to the household and turns no homeless children upon the cold charity of the world; it does not demand an enlarged police force for the care of its victims; it does not fill the air with wailing nor the houses with mourning — it is the fashion, and for its continuance men should devoutly pray.

Reading the article above, it doesn't take much to see that Beef Tea was obviously looked at as a great alternative for anything made with alcohol. And as I said in my other story Old West Treatment For What Ails You -- Beef Tea, the article below is a newspaper article that talked about a drink called "The Beef Tea Tipple" which was being served in saloons in Nebraska. 

The article below is 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 businessman 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!"

So while the only drink that we usually see served in a saloon in a Hollywood Western is whiskey, believe it or not, that really wasn't the case. Besides whiskey, which was most likely made in a back room and aged for at least a day or two, most saloons in the Old West also served beer, wine, and several different fancy drinks along with coffee and even teas of different sorts. And yes, as we know from newspaper reports and magazine stories of the times, Beef Tea was served in some saloons. 

So, Is Beef Tea Making A Comeback? 

Well, even with zero alcohol content, Beef Tea was a popular broth in the 1800s and into the mid-1900s. For many, it was seen as a food that someone would take to restore and replenish, and heal an ailing body by sipping it when you weren't feeling well. Later, it became a staple to many -- especially during the long winter months when a hot drink was called for.

During the Civil War, the military hospitals on both sides, the Union and the Confederacy, used Beef Tea as a staple of the "special diet" to revive and restore health to patients -- especially those with typhoid-malaria fever. This agreed with later reports that stated, "Beef Tea is no doubt a good food, very good in convalescence from acute diseases, when wasted muscular tissue has to be repaired."

Beef Tea became an important drink that provided Civil War soldiers with nutrients and protein without much effort. Beef Tea is a flavorful, concentrated beef stock made with organs, bones, meat, and connective tissue leftovers. Soldiers on both sides made their own or drank Beef Tea that was provided to them. 

In 1863, The New York Times published an article about the care Union soldiers received during the Civil War, citing their "beef-tea diet" as part of "their daily fare in hospital, its excellence and variety, and the admirable arrangements for their comfort."

The Marysville Daily Appeal newspaper published an article on August 23, 1868, that mentioned how Beef Tea should be given to children for the prevention of cholera. Cholera is a bacterial disease usually spread through contaminated water. Cholera causes severe diarrhea and dehydration. Left untreated, cholera can be fatal within hours -- even in people thought to be healthy. Its death toll was such that cholera is seen as one of the great scourges of the 19th Century.

Beef Tea Was Very Popular

Beef Tea was so popular and seen as such a welcome remedy that it was even given out in hospitals in the United States and parts of Europe. And no, it wasn't just something for poor people who faced hunger. In fact, when used in hospitals, it was given to patients of all social classes because it was seen as having nutritional value -- even if they didn't know exactly why. 

It became very apparent that it was good for all sorts of afflictions. Of course, when it was first used in hospitals, medical professionals tried to figure out what gave Beef Tea its nutritional value. And even though some newspapers dismissed the idea that Beef Tea could be good for what ails you, there were some who began to research its benefits.   

Of course, unlike these days when a lot of people believe that "science is settled" on different issues, that wasn't the case back in the day. Since science is all about asking questions and seeking answers, some folks wanted to know why Beef Tea worked wonders. 

Let's keep in mind that back in the early 1800s, the word "protein" was brand new. The word "protein" was coined by a Dutch Scientist in 1838. As for vitamins, no one knew what they were until the 20th Century. Medical professionals didn't even know about vitamins and protein at the time. Nevertheless, they couldn't explain why Beef Tea worked so well on patients with a variety of ailments. 

Think about this, medical scientists were just scratching the surface of what's in foods and how they affect the human body in the early 1800s. Everyone knew that people need to eat meat, that wasn't something that only Doctors and Scientists understood. But no one could explain why we needed it. 

It was like Scuvy. Even the Ancients knew that scurvy's symptoms were weakness, fatigue, and sore arms and legs. They knew that as scurvy worsens, there can be poor wound healing, personality changes, and finally death from infection and bleeding. People knew scurvy was caused by not having fruits and vegetables, but they couldn't tell you why that was the case. 

Today, we know scurvy is a deficiency disease caused by a lack of Vitamin C. And by the way, Vitamin C was not discovered for what it was until 1920. That was the same year that Vitamin D and Vitamin B2 were discovered. Vitamin A was discovered in 1913. Vitamin E was discovered in 1922. Vitamin K was discovered in 1929. Vitamin B5 was discovered in 1931. Vitamin B6 was discovered in 1934. Vitamin B7 (Biotin) and Vitamin B3 (Niacin) were not discovered until 1936. Vitamin B9 (Folic acid) was discovered in 1941. Vitamin B12 wasn't discovered until 1948.

In fact, it is believed that at the beginning of the 20th century, there was a belief in the scientific community that there were only three essential nutrients recognised within food -- they are proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. So really, if we consider these facts, we can see how medical professionals didn't understand why Beef Tea or Beef Broth would be helpful for us. 

Today's Revived Interest In Beef Tea

Today, there is a revived interest in Beef Tea because of its nutritional value, which it was once believed to be lacking. Today, researchers are recognizing Beef Tea for its therapeutic and nourishing qualities. 

Some of the benefits have to do with it being soothing. It's true. Some folks swear that Beef Tea is comforting and soothing and gives them strength. So, besides being seen as nutritious and easy on the stomach, Beef Tea is believed to help with digestion for folks with digestive problems, fever, depression, melancholy, a lack of pep, and a lack of strength and vitality. As an appetite suppressant, it's said that sipping Beef Tea or even Beef Broth is recommended as an aid when trying to slim down.

It is believed that regular consumption of Beef Tea can treat anemia by improving one's iron levels and thus improving one's energy levels. Regular consumption of Beef Tea is seen by many, even today, as an overlooked medicinal tea that offers several health-promoting restorative properties. 

Beef Tea dates back to the Victorian Era as a restorative drink for the sick and weak. Victorian cookbooks and even medical journals included recipes for Beef Tea while highlighting its medicinal value. It was recommended for those needing protein and iron to boost energy and regain strength. 

Doctors prescribed it because it is gentle on the system and it's easily digestible. While there is some debate about its nutritional value, there is no way that anyone can say that it does not have an extremely long history as a source of nutrition -- especially as a treatment for patients recovering from illness or having to endure extreme fatigue. 

It was a source of goodness given to Civil War soldiers, taken by Americans making their way West, and drank by trailblazers, miners, cowboys, and many others over a century or more. For those reasons and more, it's believed that Beef Tea helps improve one's general health and gives one an overall sense of well-being. 

So, is Beef Tea making a comeback? Well, it doesn't sound like a bad thing if it does. I'd certainly try it.

Tom Correa