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Braized Ox-cheek, with Stewed Cabbages

A braised ox cheek served with stewed savoy cabbages, bacon, sausage, carrots, turnips, and a glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Braized Ox-cheek, with Stewed Cabbages

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meats

  1. Prepare the ox-cheek for braising as directed.

  2. Add the German sausage to the pot.

  3. Add the bacon to the pot.

  4. Braise gently for about 2 hours.

  5. Press the cooked ox-cheek.

  6. Cut the ox-cheek into scallops.

  7. Cut the bacon into neat scallops.

  8. Cut the sausage into neat scallops.

  9. Keep the bacon and sausage scallops hot.

Prepare the cabbages

  1. Cut the savoy cabbages in halves.

  2. Remove the stalks from the cabbages.

  3. Parboil the cabbages.

  4. Tie the cabbages with string.

  5. Cover the cabbages with buttered paper.

  6. Drain the cabbage.

  7. Press the drained cabbage in a napkin.

  8. Cut the cabbage into cork-shaped pieces.

Plate and serve

  1. Arrange the ox-cheek, bacon, and sausage scallops in a circle on a serving dish.

  2. Place the cabbage around the base.

  3. Garnish with carrot rings.

  4. Garnish with turnip pears.

  5. Fill the center with small fancy-shaped carrots.

  6. Fill the center with turnips boiled in broth with sugar.

  7. Pour half glaze around the base.

  8. Pour thin Espagnole sauce around the base.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Cabbage + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cabbage + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + carrottop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox-cheek
Long braising breaks down connective tissue, leaving the meat tender and moist.
Streaky bacon
Renders fat and adds smoky, savoury flavour to the braising liquid and dish.
German sausage
Adds savoury, spiced flavour and richness to the platter.
Savoy cabbages
Form the tender, mild vegetable base that carries the braised flavours.
Half glaze
Adds concentrated meaty flavour and body to the sauce served with the dish.

The step that matters

Braise gently for about 2 hours. Low, gentle heat lets collagen in the ox-cheek slowly convert to gelatin, giving tenderness. A hard boil toughens the meat and dries the surface, so keep the liquid at a bare simmer.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, carrot, turnip, sugar):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, carrot, turnip, sugar. 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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