Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Ox-tail, Stewed
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the oxtail
Remove the rough skin from the oxtail, leaving it white and clear.
In a stewpan, combine the oxtail, stock, herbs, peppercorns, sliced vegetables, and salt.
Simmer gently for 4 hours.
Press the cooked oxtail between two dishes until cold, then cut into 2‑inch squares.
Make the sauce and serve
In a stewpan, fry the butter and flour until a brown roux forms.
Strain the stock from the oxtail into the roux, adding more stock if needed to make ½ pint.
Add the pieces of oxtail to the roux, heat, and serve garnished with fancily cut vegetables.
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.
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Oxtail
- Provides the meat and gelatin that give the stew its body and rich flavour.
- Stock
- Forms the liquid base and carries flavour into the sauce.
- Butter
- Fat that cooks with the flour to form the roux and adds richness.
- Flour
- Thickens the stock into a sauce when cooked with the butter.
The step that matters
Frying the butter and flour to a brown roux. Cooking the flour in fat until brown gives the sauce a deeper colour and nutty flavour, but over-browning scorches it and tastes bitter. Stir constantly over moderate heat and watch closely.
“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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