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Ox-tail Bovp

A hearty broth made from ox tails, vegetables, herbs, vinegar, and port wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Ox-tail Bovp

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the ox tails in cold water for several hours.

Make the broth

  1. Place the ox tails in a saucepan with 4 quarts of cold water, sweet herbs, black pepper, onions, carrots, and turnip.

  2. Cover and bring to a boil. Skim off any foam.

  3. Reduce heat and let it simmer for 3 hours.

  4. Remove all fat from the surface.

  5. Stir in vinegar and port wine.

  6. Remove the vegetables and herbs before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Pepper + turniptop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,252 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ox tails
Release gelatin and collagen as they simmer, giving the broth body and a silky mouthfeel.
Onions
Add savoury sweetness and aromatic depth as they soften and release flavour into the broth.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and aromatic depth to the simmering broth.
Turnip
Adds mild sweetness and earthy flavour to the broth as it cooks.
Port wine
Adds sweetness, fruity aroma and depth to the finished broth.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the broth and balances its richness.

The step that matters

Skim off any foam. Foam carries impurities from the meat and vegetables to the surface. Skimming it early keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting, while a hard boil would churn it back in and cloud it.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, carrot, turnip, vinegar, port wine):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, carrot, turnip, vinegar, port wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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