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Oxtail Soup

A thickened soup made from simmered oxtails, butter, flour, red currant jelly, anchovy vinegar, and marsala.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Red currant and pepper work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 267 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓

Oxtail Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Simmer the oxtails in water for 30 minutes, skimming regularly.

  2. Strain the soup, saving the oxtails, and let it cool in a bowl.

  3. Remove the meat from the oxtails and pound it in a mortar.

  4. Pass the pounded meat through a sieve and skim the fat from the soup.

Thicken and finish

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in the flour, and gradually add the soup and pounded meat.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil until thickened.

  3. Stir in the red currant jelly, anchovy vinegar, and marsala, then 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. Red currant + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together267 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

  5. Red currant + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together188 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Oxtails
Provide the meat and gelatin-rich body that flavours the stock.
Butter
Carries the flour and adds richness to the roux base.
Flour
Thickens the soup as it cooks with the butter.
Red currant jelly
Adds sweetness and body, balancing the savoury stock.
Anchovy vinegar
Adds acidity and a salty, savoury depth.
Marsala
Adds sweetness and a rich, wine-based aroma.

The step that matters

Thickening the soup at a boil. Flour must be cooked in the fat and liquid until it boils to thicken fully and lose its raw starchy taste. Adding it too quickly without stirring can cause lumps, so the soup should be whisked in gradually.

Swap the red currant

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

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Red currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, anchovy, vinegar, 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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