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Braized Ox-cheek, with Puree of Green-peas

A braised ox cheek cooked with broth, vegetables, and spices, served with a reduced glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Braized Ox-cheek, with Puree of Green-peas

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bone the ox-cheek and soak it in cold water for 2 hours.

  2. Parboil the ox-cheek in water for 5 minutes, then immerse it in cold water.

  3. Trim the ox-cheek.

  4. Break up the bones.

  5. Place the bones in an oval stewpan.

  6. Add the ox-cheek.

Braise

  1. Garnish with carrot, onion, celery, parsley, cloves, mace, and peppercorns.

  2. Moisten with broth or water.

  3. Add salt if using water.

  4. Braise gently by the stove for about 2 hours.

  5. Once done, carefully remove the ox-cheek.

  6. Press it between two dishes.

Sauce and serve

  1. Use half the broth to prepare brown sauce.

  2. Reduce the remainder to a half glaze.

  3. Cut the ox-cheek into 12 equal pieces.

  4. Shape them.

  5. Place in a sauté pan with the half-glaze.

  6. Simmer gently for 10 minutes 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. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ox-cheek
Dense connective tissue that softens into tender, gelatin-rich meat during long, gentle braising.
Broth or water
Liquid that gently cooks the meat and, once reduced, becomes the body of the glaze and sauce.
Carrot, onion, and celery
Aromatic vegetables that add savory sweetness and depth to the braising liquid.
Peppercorns, cloves, and mace
Whole spices that add warm aroma to the braising liquid without dominating the meat.

The step that matters

Braise gently by the stove. Cheek is rich in collagen that only turns tender with slow, low heat. A rolling boil toughens the fibres and can leave the meat stringy, so keep the liquid barely simmering.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Macethe original

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