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Stewed Oxtail

A slow‑cooked stew of oxtail with vegetables and herbs, finished with a butter‑flour roux and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Stewed Oxtail

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oxtail

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

  2. Place the joints in a saucepan, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil.

  3. Strain off the water and dry the joints.

Make the stew

  1. In the same saucepan, heat the butter and lightly fry the oxtail joints.

  2. Remove the joints and make the butter hot again.

  3. Stir in the flour and fry until light brown.

  4. Add the stock and stir until it boils.

  5. Return the oxtail to the saucepan, add the vegetables and spices tied in muslin.

  6. Simmer gently for 4 hours.

Serve

  1. Serve the oxtail on a hot dish, skim the gravy, and strain it over the meat.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Oxtail
Provides the meat and rich gelatinous body that gives the stew its texture.
Flour
Thickens the butter and stock into a smooth gravy as it cooks.
Butter or dripping
Carries the frying of the joints and adds richness and browning.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and aromatic flavour to the stock during the long simmer.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and aroma to the stock during the long simmer.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, fatty gravy.

The step that matters

Frying the flour until light brown. Cooking the flour in fat until light brown toasts it and removes raw starch taste, and it thickens the gravy properly. Stirring constantly prevents scorching and lumps.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, onion, thyme, parsley, clove, butter):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, onion, thyme, parsley, clove, butter. 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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