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Oxtail Soup

A hearty soup made with oxtails, potatoes, tomatoes, herbs, and cloves, served with chopped hard‑boiled eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Oxtail Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Place the oxtails in a large pot with the cold water.

  2. Boil gently for 2 hours, skimming off any impurities that rise to the surface.

  3. Add the chopped potatoes, soup bunch, and tomatoes to the pot.

  4. Brown the onion with the cloves until brown, then add it to the pot.

  5. Season with coarse sea salt to taste.

  6. Boil until the liquid reduces to 3 quarts.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the soup and serve with chopped hard boiled eggs.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Clove + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Oxtails
Release gelatin and meaty flavor into the broth as they simmer slowly.
Potatoes
Break down during simmering to give the soup body and thickness.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and savory depth that balances the rich beef broth.
Onion
Browning with the cloves builds sweetness and aroma for the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming during the first boil. Impurities that rise early can cloud the broth and carry off-flavors. Skimming them while the liquid simmers gently keeps the soup clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, tomato, onion, egg):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, tomato, onion, egg. 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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