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Jamaican Oxtails

A Jamaican stew of oxtails simmered with onions, tomatoes, peppers, and molasses.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 14 ingredients
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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 ↓

Jamaican Oxtails

Ingredients

Directions

Marinate and dredge

  1. Place oxtails in a large bowl.

  2. Add sliced onion and soy sauce.

  3. Refrigerate at least 2 hours.

  4. Combine flour, salt, and pepper.

  5. Dredge oxtails in the mixture, ensuring all sides are covered.

  6. Reserve the onion.

Brown and braise

  1. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven until hot.

  2. Brown the oxtails.

  3. Remove the meat from the pan and drain off all but 2 tablespoons of oil.

  4. Add the reserved onion, tomato, bell pepper, chili, and garlic to the pan and sauté lightly, scraping up brown bits.

  5. Add hot water and molasses and stir well.

  6. Return the oxtails to the pan and cook over low heat for 1½ hours.

  7. Add the thyme sprig and continue cooking for 30 minutes longer.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

767Calories
18 gProtein
16 gFat
138 gCarbs

Counts 13 of 14 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 13 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Bell Pepper1 medium (119g)31
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Soy Sauce1 tbsp (15ml)9
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Oxtails
Collagen-rich cut that turns tender and silky during long, slow cooking.
Flour
Coats the oxtails so they brown well and thicken the sauce slightly.
Soy sauce
Adds salty, savory depth that seasons the meat during marinating.
Molasses
Adds sweetness and dark color to the braising liquid.
Onion
Builds a sweet, aromatic base for the stew's sauce.
Extra virgin olive oil
Conducts heat for browning the dredged oxtails and carries flavor from the aromatics.

The step that matters

Brown the oxtails. Browning the floured meat in hot oil creates a deep crust through the Maillard reaction, which builds the stew's savory flavor. Pale, crowded meat steams instead and tastes flat.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, sauce, flour, pepper, olive, tomato, garlic):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, sauce, flour, pepper, 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.

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