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Ox-tail Soup a LA Jardiniere

A hearty soup made with ox tail, carrots, onions, celery, bay leaf, peppercorns, and water, seasoned with salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Ox-tail Soup a LA Jardiniere

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Cut the ox tail into pieces.

  2. In a large pot, combine the ox tail, carrots, onions, celery, bay leaf, and peppercorns.

Simmer

  1. Add water and bring to a boil.

  2. Reduce heat and simmer for 3 hours, skimming off any foam.

Finish

  1. Strain the soup and season with salt to taste.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox tail
Releases collagen and flavor into the broth during long, slow simmering.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they soften into the broth.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and body to the soup.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savory background flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming off any foam while simmering. Foam carries impurities and proteins that can cloud the broth and taste bitter if left to recirculate. Removing it as it forms keeps the soup clearer and cleaner-tasting.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, 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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