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Soup

Ox Tail Soup

A soup of ox tail pieces simmered with stock, vegetables, mace and flour-thickened seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Ox Tail Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the oxtail

  1. Melt the butter in a stew pan and fry the ox tail pieces for 5 minutes, turning them frequently.

  2. Add the stock or water and bring to a gentle boil.

  3. Stir in the salt and remove any scum that rises to the surface.

Simmer the soup

  1. Add the carrot, turnip, onion, celery, mace, and bouquet of garnish.

  2. Stew gently for 2.5 hours.

  3. Strain the soup and place the ox tail pieces in cold water to remove excess fat.

  4. Mix the flour with a little cold water until smooth, then add to the stock and simmer for 20 minutes.

  5. Season with cayenne, lemon juice, and port wine if desired, then serve.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 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

Ox tail
Provides the meat and gelatin-rich body that gives the soup its savory flavor and mouthfeel.
Butter
Fat that browns the oxtail pieces, building savory flavor before the liquid is added.
Flour
Thickens the stock as it simmers, giving the soup a fuller body.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth to the finished soup when used.

The step that matters

Removing scum and fat. Skimming the scum as it rises keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting, and chilling the strained oxtail lets excess fat solidify so it can be removed.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, carrot, turnip, onion, clove, celery, flour. 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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