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To Stew Ox Palates

A stew made from ox palates simmered with broth, vegetables, ketchup, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,002 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

To Stew Ox Palates

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the palates

  1. Wash the ox palates in cold water and rub with coarse sea salt.

  2. Soak in warm salt water for a few hours, rubbing occasionally to remove mucus.

  3. Rinse thoroughly and place in a saucepan with enough cold water to cover them.

  4. Heat slowly without boiling. Once hot, scrape off the tough skin from the palates. If the water boils, this will be difficult.

Stew and serve

  1. Add the stock and chopped vegetables to the saucepan.

  2. Let them stew very slowly for at least two hours until tender.

  3. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, ketchup, and vinegar.

  4. Serve hot.

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 + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Turnip + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,252 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 palates
Main protein; slow stewing turns their tough connective tissue tender.
Broth or stock
Liquid that carries flavour and keeps the palates moist during the long stew.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and aroma as it softens into the stock.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, gelatinous broth.

The step that matters

Heat slowly without boiling. Boiling toughens the surface proteins and makes the skin hard to scrape off, while gentle heat keeps the palates tender and easier to clean.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ketchup, vinegar, carrot, turnip, 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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