Skip to main content
Main

Ox-tail Soup

A hearty soup made from ox tail, vegetables, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ox-tail

  1. Cut the ox-tail into pieces at the joints.

  2. Place the pieces in a stewpan, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil.

  3. Boil for 5 minutes, then strain and dry the pieces with a clean cloth.

Build the soup

  1. Return the ox-tail to the stewpan and add 2 oz. of butter.

  2. Wash, scrape, and cut the carrot in half; add it to the stewpan.

  3. Peel the onion and insert the cloves; add it to the stewpan.

  4. Wash the celery and trim the green tops; add it to the stewpan.

  5. Add the peppercorns and bouquet garni to the stewpan.

  6. Cover and cook over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  7. Add 2 quarts of cold water and 1 teaspoon of salt.

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. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 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-tail
Provides the main meat and gelatinous body that gives the broth its flavour and richness.
Butter
Carries fat-soluble flavour from the vegetables and aromatics into the soup and adds richness.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it softens and releases its flavour into the broth.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and body to the broth as they cook down.

The step that matters

Drying the ox-tail after boiling. Boiling first releases scum and impurities; drying the pieces well before browning-free sautéing with butter keeps the broth clear and the fat from spattering or tasting harsh.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, carrot, turnip, clove, celery, flour, thyme):

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

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

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesTurnip SoupTurnip Soup43 recipesCelery StewCelery Stew25 recipes