Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓
Haricot of Ox-Tails
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the ox tails in cold water.
Brown and stew
Brown the pieces in a frying pan with fat and onions.
Add water and stew for 3 hours.
In the last hour, add assorted vegetables and season with salt and pepper.
Finish and serve
Thicken if desired and serve with the vegetables and potatoes.
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.
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Ox-tails
- Long simmering breaks down collagen, giving the broth body and the meat a tender texture.
- Onions
- Softened and browned in the fat, they add sweetness and a savory flavor base.
- Fat
- Conducts heat for browning the meat and carries flavor through the pan.
- Water
- Forms the stewing liquid that cooks the tails and extracts flavor from them.
- Assorted vegetables
- Add sweetness, aroma and body to the stew as they cook in the broth.
- Thickening agent
- Thickens the cooking liquid into a richer, more clinging sauce.
The step that matters
Brown the pieces well before adding water. Browning triggers Maillard reactions that create roasted, savory flavors, which the stew then carries into the liquid. Pale pieces give a flatter, less rich broth.
“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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