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Ox Tail with Oysters

A savory oxtail dish simmered with oysters, brown sauce, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sauce and anchovy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,057 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Ox Tail with Oysters

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oxtail

  1. Blanch, joint, and fry the ox tail until well browned.

Braise and sauce

  1. Cook the tail in stock just enough to cover it until tender, allowing the liquid to almost absorb.

  2. Add the brown sauce and strained oyster liquor, then season with salt, cayenne, lemon juice, and anchovy essence.

  3. Beard the oysters and add them to the sauce just before serving.

Serve

  1. Serve with a Bordelaise sauce or garnish with potato chips.

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. Sauce + anchovytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Oyster + anchovytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sauce + oystertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Lemon + anchovytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,080 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Oyster + lemontop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,942 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox tail
Becomes tender through slow simmering in stock, giving the dish its main body and meaty texture.
Brown sauce
Forms the rich, savoury base that the tail and oysters are finished in.
Oysters
Add a briny, delicate flavour and soft texture when stirred in at the end.
Anchovy essence
Adds a deep savoury, salty note that rounds out the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the oysters. Oysters toughen and turn rubbery when overheated, so they should be added to the hot sauce just before serving and only warmed through.

“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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