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Ox Tail

A hearty soup made by stewing ox tails with vegetables and consommé, then clarifying and seasoning.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and soak the ox tails in cold water for one hour.

  2. Remove the ox tails from the water.

  3. Cut the ox tails into 1-inch lengths.

Make the soup

  1. In a stewpan, combine the ox tails, consommé, carrots, onions, turnip, salt, and celery.

  2. Let the mixture stew until the tails are tender.

  3. Remove the ox tails from the soup.

  4. Strain the soup through a fine cloth.

  5. Let the soup cool.

  6. Remove all fat and grease from the soup.

  7. If necessary, clarify the soup as directed for consommé.

Finish and serve

  1. Cut the carrots and celery into shapes.

  2. Return the ox tails and cut vegetables to the soup.

  3. Bring the soup to a boil.

  4. Add salt and sugar to taste.

  5. 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.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ox tails
Provide the meat and gelatinous body that gives the soup its richness and mouthfeel.
Consommé
Supplies the clear, savory broth base that the soup is built on.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and aroma as they cook into the broth.
Onions
Contribute savory depth and aroma to the stock as they soften.
Turnip
Adds mild sweetness and earthy flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Remove all fat and grease from the soup. Oxtail releases a lot of fat during stewing, and it floats on the surface as it cools. Removing it after chilling keeps the soup clear and prevents a greasy mouthfeel.

Swap the onion

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

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

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