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Ox-cheek Stewed

A slow‑cooked stew of ox cheek with onions, turnips, carrots, herbs, and a roux‑thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ox-cheek Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cheek

  1. Prepare the ox cheek the day before by cleaning it and soaking it in warm water for 3‑4 hours, then soak the cheek in cold water overnight.

  2. The next day, wipe it clean and place it in a stew pan, covering it with water.

Stew

  1. Bring to a boil, skimming off any foam, then add onions, cloves, turnips, carrots, bay leaves, allspice, celery, sweet herbs, salt, and pepper.

  2. Add Cayenne and garlic to taste for a stronger flavor.

  3. Let it stew gently for about 3 hours until tender.

  4. Remove the cheek, cut it into pieces, and strain the gravy.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In a separate pan, melt the butter and stir in enough flour to make a roux.

  2. Gradually mix in the gravy and add vinegar or ketchup, bringing it to a boil.

  3. Serve in a soup or ragout dish.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 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 gentle stewing breaks down connective tissue, making the meat tender and rich.
Butter
Melted with flour, it forms the roux that thickens the gravy and adds richness.
Flour
Forms a roux with butter that thickens the gravy to a smooth body.
Gravy
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying the stew's flavor into the final dish.
Carrots
Release natural sweetness and body into the stewing liquid.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and soften during stewing, adding body to the broth.

The step that matters

Bringing to a boil and skimming the foam. Foam carries impurities and scum that can cloud the broth and taint its flavor, so skimming early keeps the gravy clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the garlic

The recipe marks garlic as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, clove, turnip, carrot, allspice, celery, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, clove, turnip, carrot, allspice, celery, 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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