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Ox-Tail

Grilled or oven-browned ox-tail coated in clarified butter and breadcrumbs, served with optional stewed cabbage or tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and cabbage are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,081 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Ox-Tail

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Sprinkle the ox-tail with salt and cayenne pepper.

  2. Dip the ox-tail into clarified butter.

  3. Coat the ox-tail with fine bread crumbs.

Cook and serve

  1. Place the coated ox-tail on a grill and brown it evenly on all sides.

  2. Alternatively, cook the ox-tail in the oven at 400°F (200°C) until properly colored.

  3. Serve immediately, optionally on stewed cabbage or in its own thickened gravy with tomato sauce.

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. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Bread + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Cabbage + tomatotop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together333 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-tail
Is the main meat, cooked until its outside browns and the meat stays tender inside.
Clarified butter
Carries heat to the surface and encourages even browning and a rich flavor.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned crust on the outside of the meat.

The step that matters

Browning the coated ox-tail evenly. Turning the piece so all sides brown evenly builds a crisp, golden crust through the Maillard reaction. Uneven browning leaves pale, soft patches and a weaker flavor.

Swap the cabbage

The recipe marks cabbage as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, bread, tomato, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, bread, tomato, sauce. 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.

More oxtail recipes

Soup 94Stew 21Stewed 12Braised 3 See all 2 →

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