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Ox-tail Soup

A hearty soup made by simmering ox-tails with vegetables, barley, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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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

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place the ox-tails in a saucepan and cover with cold water.

  2. Add salt, pepper, cloves, allspice, and bay leaves.

  3. Bring to a boil, then add barley, onion, carrot, parsnip, celery, and tomato.

  4. Boil until the meat falls off the bone.

  5. Stir in a little table sauce before serving.

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 + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Parsnip + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together561 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox-tails
Release collagen and gelatin as they simmer, giving the broth body and the meat its tenderness.
Barley
Releases starch as it cooks, slightly thickening the broth.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it softens into the broth.
Carrot
Contributes natural sweetness and body to the broth as it softens.
Tomato
Adds acidity and a fruity tang that balances the rich broth.

The step that matters

Boil until the meat falls off the bone. Collagen in the ox-tail only breaks down into gelatin with long, steady simmering. Stopping early leaves tough meat and a thin broth, so the cook should judge by tenderness rather than time.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, clove, allspice, barley, carrot, parsnip, celery):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, clove, allspice, barley, carrot, parsnip, celery. 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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