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Ox Tail Soup

A hearty soup made from ox tails simmered with onion, peppercorns, allspice, wine, and mushroom catsup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,395 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ox Tail Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the tails

  1. Wash, soak, and clean the ox tails thoroughly.

  2. Place the tails in a pot with 4 quarts of cold water for each tail.

  3. Skim off any scum that rises as the water heats.

  4. Add an onion and 8 to 10 black peppercorns and allspice berries for each tail.

  5. Cover and simmer slowly until the meat is tender and easily separates from the bones.

Make the broth

  1. Remove the tails, scrape off the meat, and cut it into small pieces.

  2. Skim the broth and strain it through a sieve.

  3. If thickening, knead 2 tablespoons of fat with flour, mix it into the broth, and simmer for another 30 minutes.

  4. If not thickening, return the meat to the broth and warm it up.

Season and serve

  1. Add a glass of wine, mushroom catsup, cayenne, and salt to taste.

  2. Simmer for a few minutes 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. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Wine + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,632 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  3. Onion + mushroomtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 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 tails
Provide meat and gelatin that give the soup body and richness as they simmer.
Fat from the broth
Carries flavour and, kneaded with flour, helps thicken the broth.
Wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the finished soup.
Mushroom catsup
Contributes concentrated savoury, umami flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum as the water heats. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise as water warms. Removing it early keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting rather than cloudy or greasy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (allspice, wine, mushroom, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against allspice, wine, mushroom, 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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