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Braized Ox-cheek, with Stewed Cabbages

A braised ox-cheek served with stewed savoy cabbages, bacon, sausage, and carrots and turnips.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Braized Ox-cheek, with Stewed Cabbages

Ingredients

Directions

Braise

  1. Prepare the ox-cheek for braising as directed in the previous recipe.

  2. Add the German sausage and streaky bacon to the pot.

  3. Cut the savoy cabbages in half, remove the stalks, and parboil them in water.

  4. Tie the cabbages with string and cover with buttered paper.

  5. Braise gently for about 2 hours.

Prepare and serve

  1. Once done, press the ox-cheek until cold and cut into scallops.

  2. Cut the bacon and sausage into neat scallops and keep hot in a sauté pan with a little glaze.

  3. Drain the cabbage in a colander, press in a napkin, and cut into cork-shaped pieces.

  4. Arrange the scallops of ox-cheek, bacon, and sausage in a close circle on a serving dish.

  5. Place the cabbage around the base as a border, topping each piece with a ring of carrot and a small pear-shaped turnip.

  6. Fill the center with small fancy-shaped carrots and turnips boiled in broth with sugar.

  7. Pour some Espagnole sauce around the base and serve.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Cabbage + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together897 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cabbage + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,505 recipes

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

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + carrottop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox-cheek
Long, gentle braising turns the tough connective tissue tender and gives a rich, moist texture.
Savoy cabbages
Parboiling and then braising soften the leaves so they hold their shape and absorb flavour.
Streaky bacon
Renders fat into the braise, adding savoury richness and depth of flavour.
German sausage
Releases seasoned fat and juices during braising, adding savoury flavour to the dish.

The step that matters

Braise gently for about 2 hours. Simmering at a low, steady heat keeps the ox-cheek from boiling hard, which would toughen the meat. Slow heat gives collagen time to break down into gelatin, producing a tender, moist result.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, carrot, turnip, sugar):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, carrot, turnip, sugar. 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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