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Ox Tail Soup

A broth made from oxtail, cloves, onions, allspice, black pepper, and mushroom catsup, thickened with flour and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Margaret Brown · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ox Tail Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Soak three oxtails in warm water.

  2. Place the oxtails, eight cloves, two onions, one teaspoon of allspice, and one teaspoon of black pepper into a gallon stewpan, then cover with cold water.

  3. Skim the surface often and carefully.

  4. Simmer gently until the meat is tender and the bones fall off, about two hours.

  5. Remove the meat from the broth and cut it off the bones.

  6. Skim the broth again and strain it through a sieve.

Thicken and finish

  1. To thicken, make a paste with flour and butter, or with two tablespoonfuls of the fat taken off the broth and enough flour to form a paste.

  2. Stir the paste well over the fire, then slowly pour in the broth while stirring.

  3. Simmer for one-half hour, skimming and straining through a sieve as needed.

  4. Return the meat to the pot, add a tablespoonful of mushroom catsup, a glass of wine, and season with salt.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

71Calories
4 gProtein
1 gFat
15 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Mushroom1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
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.

By Margaret Brown. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Mushroom + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,663 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Clove + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Allspice + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,270 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

Oxtails (in the method)
Provide the meat and bones that release gelatin and flavour into the broth as they simmer.
Flour (in the method)
Forms a paste with fat that thickens the broth as it is stirred and heated.
Onions
Add sweetness and savoury depth to the broth as they cook down.
Mushroom catsup
Adds concentrated savoury, umami flavour to finish the soup.

The step that matters

Adding the broth to the flour paste. Pouring liquid in slowly while stirring keeps the starch granules separated, so the soup thickens smoothly without lumps.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (allspice, mushroom, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, mushroom, clove. 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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