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Stewed Ox Cheek

A slow‑cooked stew of ox cheek with root vegetables and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsnip and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 590 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Stewed Ox Cheek

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a warm oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Braise the ox cheek

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Place the ox cheek in a large deep pan and cover with water.

  3. Set the pan in the oven to bring it to a boil, then leave it in the oven overnight.

  4. Remove the cheek and let the liquid cool to remove the fat.

  5. Return the meat and liquid to the pan, bring to a boil.

Thicken and finish

  1. Mix the thickening with a little cold liquid, stir until it boils, then add to the stew.

  2. Add the carrots, parsnips, turnips, parboiled potatoes, onions or leeks, celery, beet root or vegetable marrows, parsley, and thyme.

  3. Cover and simmer for at least 2 hours until everything is tender.

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. Parsnip + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

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

  5. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox cheek
Long slow cooking breaks down collagen, making the meat tender and the broth rich.
Thickening (oatmeal, rice, peas, or barley)
Starch swells when heated with liquid, thickening the stew and giving it body.
Carrots
Release natural sugars during long cooking, adding sweetness and body to the stew.
Onions or leeks
Break down during simmering, adding savory depth and sweetness to the broth.
Potatoes (parboiled)
Starch absorbs cooking liquid and softens, adding body and making the stew heartier.

The step that matters

Cooling the liquid to remove the fat. Fat rises and solidifies as the liquid cools, so it can be lifted off cleanly. Skipping this leaves a greasy stew, because fat stays suspended in warm liquid.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, parsnip, turnip, potato, celery, parsley, thyme):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Beetrootfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, parsnip, turnip, potato, celery, parsley, thyme. 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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