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Ox Tail Soup

A hearty soup made with ox tails, bacon, gravy beef, vegetables, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice 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

  1. Cut the ox tails into pieces at the joints and soak them in warm water.

Make the soup

  1. In a large stewpan, combine bacon, gravy beef, cold water, celery, onions, allspice, black pepper, carrots, turnips, and herbs.

  2. Place the stewpan over low heat until the meat is browned, stirring occasionally.

  3. Add the soaked ox tails and 3 quarts of water to the stewpan.

  4. Simmer until the soup is rich and flavorful.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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 rich mouthfeel.
Bacon
Adds fat and smoky, savory flavor that carries through the broth.
Gravy beef
Browns in the pot and contributes deep, meaty flavor to the stock.
Onions
Provide sweetness and savory depth as they soften and cook down into the broth.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the soup as they cook.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and soften into the broth, thickening it slightly.

The step that matters

Browning the meat over low heat. Slow browning of the bacon and gravy beef builds deep flavor through the Maillard reaction. Stirring occasionally prevents scorching and uneven color, which would make the broth taste bitter.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, celery, onion, clove, allspice, carrot, turnip):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Avocadofits about as well
  4. Orangefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, celery, onion, clove, allspice, carrot, turnip. 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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