Name: Braised Oxtail with Yucca, Potatoes and Red Wine
Ingredients: 4 tablespoons vegetable oil; 8 pounds oxtails cut into 2 inch thick chunks; Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper; 4 cups Chilean Pinot Noir or Merlot; 6 quarts low-sodium chicken broth; 2 bay leaves; 2 pounds yucca (peeled, cut lengthwise and tough core removed; 1 pound drained papas criollas (pickled potatoes) or small red new potatoes; 2 cups freshly chopped cilantro; Sofrito:; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 3 medium sized tomatoes, diced; 1 small Spanish onion, finely diced; 1 teaspoon minced garlic; 1/3 cup chopped cilantro; 1 bay leaf; Salt and freshly ground black pepper; 1 cup chicken stock or water; 1 1/3 cups finely chopped scallions

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

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.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,023 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

Oxtails: Collagen-rich connective tissue breaks down during long braising, giving the meat tenderness and body.
Chilean pinot noir or merlot: Reduced to a syrup, it adds depth and acidity and helps build the braising liquid's flavor.
Chicken broth: Forms the main cooking liquid, carrying heat evenly and adding savory flavor to the braise.
Yucca: Starchy and dense, it becomes tender and thickens the braising liquid slightly as it cooks.
Potatoes: Starch softens during braising, adding body and absorbing flavor from the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Browning the oxtails in batches. Crowding the pot makes meat steam instead of browning. Deep browning builds the Maillard flavors that form the base of the braise, so brown in small batches over high heat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, chicken, potato, olive, tomato, garlic):

Capsicumfits better
Spinachfits about as well
Onionthe original
Eggplantfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, chicken, potato, olive, tomato, garlic. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Potato	1 medium (173g) baked	161
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

Braised Oxtail with Yucca, Potatoes and Red Wine