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Ox-cheek Stewed

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 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 ox cheek

  1. Clean the ox cheek and soak it in warm water for 3–4 hours.

  2. Soak the ox cheek in cold water overnight.

  3. The next day, wipe the ox cheek clean and place it in a stew pan, covering it with water.

  4. Skim off any foam as the water comes to a boil.

Simmer the stew

  1. Add the onions (with cloves inserted), turnips, carrots, bay leaves, allspice berries, celery, sweet herbs, salt, and pepper.

  2. For a stronger flavor, add cayenne pepper and garlic to taste.

  3. Let the stew simmer gently for about 3 hours until the ox cheek is tender.

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

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In a separate stew pan, melt the butter and stir in enough flour to form a paste.

  2. Gradually whisk in the strained gravy and add the vinegar or similar flavoring.

  3. Bring the sauce to a boil and 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. 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 simmering breaks down its connective tissue, making the meat tender and rich.
Butter
Melted with flour to form a roux that thickens the gravy and adds richness.
Flour (in the method)
Combined with melted butter to form a roux that thickens the sauce.
Gravy
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, carrying the stew's savory flavor.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, savory sauce.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam. Foam that forms as the water heats contains impurities that can cloud the stew and taint its flavor, so removing it 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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