Skip to main content
Main

Simple Oxtail Sotjp

A simple oxtail soup simmered for three hours with butter, stock, onion, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Simple Oxtail Sotjp

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oxtail

  1. Cut the oxtail across at each joint and trim away the fat.

  2. Place the oxtail in a saucepan of cold water to blanch and bring to a boil.

  3. Strain the water and wipe the joints.

  4. Heat the butter until very hot and fry the oxtail until brown.

Make the soup

  1. Drain the butter, then add the stock or water, onion, salt, and pepper.

  2. Bring to a boil, skim, and simmer gently for three hours.

  3. Strain the soup and let it cool to remove all fat.

  4. Return the soup to the saucepan and bring to a boil.

Serve

  1. Serve with small joints of oxtail.

  2. Add sago or vermicelli and cook until clear.

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. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 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

Oxtail
Gives the soup its meaty body and rich flavour as it simmers for hours.
Butter
Fat used to brown the oxtail, adding colour and roasted flavour to the soup.
Stock or water
Forms the liquid base in which the oxtail and onion slowly release their flavour.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma to the broth during simmering.

The step that matters

Skim after the first boil. Foam and fat rising at the first boil would cloud the broth and make it greasy, so skimming keeps the soup clear before its long simmer.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes