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Ox-cheek Soup

A hearty soup made from ox cheek, onions, herbs, spices, and wine, simmered with bones and seasoned with walnut ketchup and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Ox-cheek Soup

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-cheek Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the meat

  1. Break up the ox-head.

  2. Remove the meat from the bones.

  3. In an earthen pan, combine the meat, fried onions, sweet herbs, allspice, pepper, and salt.

  4. Lay the bones on top of the meat.

  5. Add 3 to 4 quarts of water.

  6. Cover the pan with brown paper and tie it tightly.

Bake and simmer

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 3 to 4 hours.

  2. Simmer by the fire until the meat is tender.

  3. Remove the bones.

Finish the soup

  1. Pour the soup and meat into a pan.

  2. Skim off the fat.

  3. Warm the soup.

  4. Cut the meat into bite-sized pieces.

  5. Make forcemeat balls from the brains.

  6. Add the forcemeat balls to the soup.

  7. Season the soup with walnut ketchup, cayenne or chili vinegar, garlic, Madeira or port wine, and brandy.

  8. Optionally, add minced celery, carrot, and turnip for extra flavor.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + walnuttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together553 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Walnut + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox-head
Provides meat and bones that release gelatin and rich flavor into the broth during long cooking.
Onions
Fried onions add sweetness and savory depth to the broth.
Butter
Fat used to fry the onions, carrying flavor and aroma into the dish.
Madeira or port wine
Adds sweetness and fortified wine aroma to the finished soup.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a warming, spirited note to the seasoned soup.

The step that matters

Covering and baking for 3 to 4 hours. Sealing the pan traps steam so the meat cooks gently in its own liquid. Long, low-moisture-loss cooking breaks down connective tissue into gelatin, so the meat turns tender rather than dry.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, allspice, pepper, walnut, ketchup, vinegar, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, allspice, pepper, walnut, ketchup, vinegar, 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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