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Ox-cheek, Stewed. No. 2

A slow-cooked stew of ox cheek with onion, sweet herbs, allspice, pepper, salt, and optional vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ox-cheek, Stewed. No. 2

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Soak the ox cheek for 3 hours and clean it with plenty of water.

  2. Remove the meat from the bones and place it in a pan with the onion, sweet herbs, allspice, pepper, and salt.

Stew

  1. Lay the bones on top and pour in 2 to 3 quarts of water.

  2. Cover the pan tightly with brown paper or a fitting dish.

  3. Cook in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 8 to 10 hours, or simmer by the fire.

Finish

  1. Once tender, transfer the meat to a clean pan and let it cool.

  2. Remove the fat and warm the meat pieces in the soup.

  3. Add your choice of vegetables.

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. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Onion + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,270 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 its tough connective tissue into tender, gelatinous meat.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma to the broth as it softens during the long cook.
Sweet herbs
Infuse the broth with aromatic flavor during the long, gentle simmer.
Allspice
Adds warm, aromatic spice that flavors the meat and broth.

The step that matters

Keep the heat low and the pan covered during the long cook. Collagen in the ox cheek only turns to gelatin with prolonged gentle heat. Boiling hard toughens the meat and evaporates the broth, while a tight cover keeps moisture in so the meat stays tender and the soup stays rich.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (allspice, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, 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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