Name: De Queues De Bceuf {Thick Ox-tail Soup}
Ingredients: 1 ox-tail, cut into small pieces; 2 oz. butter; 1 carrot, chopped; 1 onion, chopped; 1 oz. flour; 3 pints stock; 1 glass sherry; jardiniere or vegetable macedoine, for garnish

Why it works: Carrot and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

De Queues De Bceuf {Thick Ox-tail Soup}

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

Fry the ox-tail pieces in butter with the chopped carrot and onion until browned.
Remove the ox-tail and add flour to the pan, stirring until it turns chestnut brown.
Moisten the mixture with stock and bring to a boil.

Simmer and finish

Return the ox-tail to the pot and cook for about 45 minutes.
Strain the soup and select the best pieces of ox-tail for garnish.
Add the reserved ox-tail to the soup along with sherry and vegetable garnish.
Reheat the soup and serve.

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.

Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Carrot + flourtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,029 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,505 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Ox-tail: Gives the soup its rich meaty flavour and body as it simmers.
Butter: Carries the browning of the meat and vegetables, adding richness and aroma.
Flour: Browned into a roux that thickens the stock and adds nutty flavour.
Stock: Forms the liquid base of the soup, carrying the flavour of the other ingredients.
Sherry: Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Browning the flour. Stirring the flour until it turns chestnut brown develops nutty flavour and colour, and it must be stirred constantly so it does not scorch. Scorched flour tastes bitter and cannot be fixed, while properly browned flour thickens the soup well and adds depth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, carrot, flour, sherry):

Leekfits better
Parsnipfits better
Turnipfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, carrot, flour, sherry. 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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De Queues De Bceuf {Thick Ox-tail Soup}