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Ox Tail

A stew of ox tail pieces simmered with onions, herbs, wine, bacon, and broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Ox Tail

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the ox tail pieces in water for 15 minutes, then drain.

  2. Once cold and dry, place the pieces in a stewpan.

Simmer

  1. Add the bay leaf, onions, parsley, thyme, garlic, salt, pepper, white wine, and bacon.

  2. Cover with broth and simmer on moderate heat for 2 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve the ox tail pieces with the strained sauce and garnish with cabbage or purée.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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 gelatinous connective tissue that enriches the stew over a long simmer.
White wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the braising liquid.
Bacon fat
Adds fat and savory flavor that carries into the sauce.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic flavor to the broth as they cook.

The step that matters

Drying the ox tail before it goes into the stewpan. Boiling and draining removes impurities and surface scum, and drying the pieces helps the stew stay clean-flavored and lets the meat brown or develop flavor rather than steam in excess liquid.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, parsley, thyme, garlic, pepper, white wine):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, parsley, thyme, garlic, pepper, white wine. 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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