Skip to main content
Main

Ox-tail Soup

A hearty soup made from ox tail, vegetables, and spices, simmered until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

serves 2 (1 cup each)

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Wash the ox-tail in cold water and place it in a porcelain or agate kettle.

  2. Pour in 5 quarts of cold water and soak for 2 hours.

  3. Bring to a boil gradually and simmer until the meat falls off the bones.

  4. Add the chopped carrot, leek, celery, parsley, and tomatoes.

  5. When the vegetables are soft, strain the soup and let it cool.

Finish and store

  1. The next day, skim off the fat and heat the soup.

  2. Add salt, browned flour, mixed spices, cayenne, and sugar.

  3. Seal in a glass preserving jar; it will keep for 2 weeks in cold weather.

  4. Use 1 cup of soup for 2 people, adding a few spoonfuls of water when reheating.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Parsley + allspicetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,289 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox-tail
Releases collagen and meat flavour into the broth as it simmers slowly.
Browned flour
Thickens the soup slightly and adds a toasted, deeper flavour.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and savoury body to the broth.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and body to the broth as it softens.

The step that matters

Simmering the ox-tail gradually. Bringing the water to a boil gradually and then keeping it at a gentle simmer lets collagen break down slowly into gelatin, giving a rich broth with tender meat. A hard rolling boil can toughen the meat and cloud the soup.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, leek, celery, parsley, flour, clove, allspice):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, leek, celery, parsley, flour, clove, allspice. 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.

More ox tail soup recipes

Clear 5 See all 157 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipes