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Ox-tail Soup

A hearty soup made from ox tails simmered with vegetables and herbs, thickened with arrow-root or rice flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Ox-tail Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Wash and soak the ox tails.

  2. Pour cold water over the tails.

  3. Bring the water to a boil gradually.

  4. Add salt.

  5. Skim off any scum that forms.

  6. Once scum ceases to rise, add carrots, onions, herbs, celery, turnips, cloves, and peppercorns.

  7. Stew gently for 3 to 3½ hours, depending on the size of the tails.

Strain and finish

  1. Remove the tails.

  2. Strain the broth.

  3. Skim off the fat.

  4. Cut the meat from the tails and return it to the stock.

  5. When the stock begins to boil, stir in a thickening of arrow-root or rice flour mixed with cayenne and salt to taste.

  6. Serve the soup very hot.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox-tails
Release gelatin and meaty flavor into the broth during the long stew, and supply the meat for the soup.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth to the broth as they cook slowly.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the stock during the long simmer.
Arrow-root or rice flour
Thickens the broth to a silky body when stirred in near boiling.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum. Foam from proteins and impurities rises as the water heats. Removing it before adding the vegetables keeps the broth clear and free of bitter or muddy flavors.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, celery, turnip, clove, rice, pepper):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, celery, turnip, clove, rice, pepper. 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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