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Ox-tail Soup

A hearty soup made with ox-tails, ham, vegetables, herbs, and port wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Ox-tail Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the soup

  1. In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the ox-tails and ham, browning them on all sides.

  3. Stir in the carrots, turnips, onions, leek, and celery.

  4. Add the savory herbs, pepper, salt, ketchup, port wine, and water.

  5. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 3-4 hours until the meat is tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the ox-tails, shred the meat, and return it to the soup.

  2. Strain the soup if desired, and serve hot.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 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-tails
Release gelatin and savory meat flavor into the broth during the long simmer.
Ham
Adds salty, smoky depth that seasons the broth as it browns and simmers.
Butter
Carries the heat for browning the meat and vegetables, adding richness and browned flavor.
Onions
Caramelize slightly in the butter, adding sweetness and a deep base flavor.
Port wine
Adds sweetness, acidity and fruity depth to the broth.
Ketchup
Adds tomato sweetness and acidity that rounds out the broth.

The step that matters

Brown the ox-tails and ham on all sides. Browning triggers the Maillard reaction, which creates deep roasted flavors. Skipping or rushing it leaves the broth pale and flat, since the flavor is hard to add back later.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, butter, carrot, turnip, leek, celery, pepper):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, butter, carrot, turnip, leek, celery, pepper. 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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