Name: Ox-Tail a l’Anglaise
Ingredients: 1 small ox-tail; 1 quart consommé; 1 pint Espagnole sauce; 1 pinch pepper; 1 tablespoon well-washed barley; 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce; ½ glass Madeira wine; 6 slices lemon; 1 chopped hard-boiled egg

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Ox-Tail a l’Anglaise

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

Cut the ox-tail into pieces and fry them.
Moisten with consommé and Espagnole sauce.
Cook for 1 hour.
Season with pepper, barley, Worcestershire sauce, and Madeira wine.
Boil for 45 minutes, then skim off the fat.

Serve

Serve with lemon slices and chopped hard-boiled egg, removing the bouquet.

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.

Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Barley + lemontop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together484 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Pepper + barleytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together897 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together44,316 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Sauce + madeira winetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together230 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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: Its collagen-rich connective tissue breaks down during long cooking, giving the dish body and a tender texture.
Consommé: Provides the main liquid, so the meat simmers gently and moisture carries the flavour through the dish.
Espagnole sauce: Adds a rich, thickened brown base that gives the broth body and a deep savoury flavour.
Madeira wine: Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the sauce as it reduces during boiling.
Barley: Thickens the broth slightly as it cooks and adds a mild, starchy body.

The step that matters

Skimming the fat after boiling. Fat rises to the surface as the broth boils and can make the sauce greasy and cloudy. Removing it before serving leaves a clearer, cleaner-tasting liquid.

“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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Ox-Tail a l’Anglaise