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Ox-tails

A stew of oxtails with onions, carrots, turnips, and a thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 145 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Ox-tails

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stew

  1. Brown the oxtail pieces with butter and a large onion in a stewpan.

  2. Peel the button onions.

  3. Boil the button onions in 3 pints of water for 15-20 minutes.

  4. Set the boiled button onions aside.

  5. Pour the boiling water from the button onions over the oxtails, adding enough boiling water to cover them.

  6. Add the sliced carrots.

  7. Simmer for 20 minutes.

  8. Add the turnips.

  9. Ensure the oxtails and vegetables are not stewed too fast or too much.

Make the gravy

  1. Once tender, strain the gravy through a sieve.

  2. Skim off the fat from the strained gravy.

  3. Melt 1 ounce of butter in a separate pan.

  4. Stir in enough flour to thicken the gravy.

  5. Gradually pour the strained gravy into the pan.

  6. Stir until it boils.

  7. Let it simmer gently.

Serve

  1. Arrange the oxtails around a serving dish.

  2. Place the vegetables in the center.

  3. Pour the gravy over.

  4. Warm the button onions in boiling water.

  5. Place the warmed button onions around the dish just before serving.

  6. Optionally, add minced gherkins or capers to the dish.

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. Turnip + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together145 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Flour + caperstop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,024 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Oxtails
Slow simmering breaks down connective tissue, making the meat tender and rich in body.
Butter
Browning the oxtails adds savory flavor, and melted butter forms the base for the thickening roux.
Flour
Starch thickens the strained gravy as it heats, giving it a smooth, coating body.
Carrots
Add sweetness and soft texture as they cook in the stew.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and a tender texture to the stew.

The step that matters

Keep the stew at a gentle simmer. Boiling vigorously toughens meat and breaks up vegetables, while a gentle simmer lets collagen slowly convert to gelatin for tender oxtail and a clear gravy.

Swap the capers

The recipe marks capers as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, carrot, turnip, flour):

  1. Parsleyfits about as well
  2. Capersthe original
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Thymefits less well

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