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A Thick Ox-tail Soup

A thick soup made from ox-tail, garlic, mushroom ketchup, butter, flour, port wine, red currant jelly, anchovy vinegar, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,700 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. The science ↓

A Thick Ox-tail Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Gently boil the soup with the ox-tail and garlic for two hours, skimming occasionally.

  2. Strain the soup through a colander, saving the ox-tail joints.

  3. Pound the meat from the ox-tail in a mortar and press it through a sieve.

  4. Remove the fat from the soup.

Thicken and finish

  1. Melt butter in a large pot and stir in flour.

  2. Add the soup and meat paste, then bring to a boil until thickened.

  3. Stir in port wine, red currant jelly, and anchovy vinegar.

  4. Heat for one minute 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. Garlic + mushroomtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,700 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  2. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Clove + garlictop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,368 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Port wine + red curranttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Clove + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,663 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox-tail
Its meat and connective tissue add body and savoury depth to the soup.
Flour
Cooked into the butter, it forms a roux that thickens the soup.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps the flour cook into a smooth base.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and rich, fruity depth to the savoury broth.
Red currant jelly
Adds sweetness and gloss, balancing the savoury and sour notes.
Anchovy vinegar
Adds acidity and a salty, savoury note that sharpens the flavour.

The step that matters

Thickening with the butter and flour. Flour must cook briefly in melted butter before the soup is added, so it thickens smoothly. Adding raw flour or stirring poorly causes lumps and a floury taste.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, mushroom, ketchup, butter, flour, port wine, red currant):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, mushroom, ketchup, butter, flour, port wine, red currant. 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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