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Ox-tail Soup a LA Jardiniere

A hearty soup made with ox tails, vegetables, and herbs, simmered until tender and garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. 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 tails into pieces.

  2. In a large pot, add the ox tails, onion, carrots, celery, bay leaf, peppercorns, and salt.

Simmer

  1. Cover with water and bring to a boil.

  2. Reduce heat and simmer for 3-4 hours until the meat is tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the ox tails, strain the broth, and return the broth to the pot.

  2. Shred the meat from the bones and add it back to the soup.

  3. Garnish with fresh parsley 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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. 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 tails
Provide the meat and collagen-rich bones that give the broth body and flavor.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aromatic depth to the broth as it cooks.
Carrots
Contribute natural sweetness and body to the broth during long simmering.
Celery stalks
Add aromatic, savory flavor that builds the base of the broth.

The step that matters

Keep the simmer gentle. A rolling boil toughens meat and clouds the broth. A slow simmer lets collagen in the ox tails break down gradually, leaving the meat tender and the broth clear.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, celery, parsley. 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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