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Clear Ox-tail Soup

A clarified soup made from ox tail, stock, vegetables, mushrooms, egg whites, shells, arrowroot, wine, and peppercorns.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,632 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol, which smells allspice, anise. The science ↓

Clear Ox-tail Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Soak the ox tail for 2 hours, then cut it into pieces.

  2. Simmer the pieces in the stock for 3 hours.

  3. If using mushrooms, add them 1 hour before straining.

  4. Strain the soup and clarify it with the egg whites and shells.

Finish the soup

  1. Mix the arrowroot with a little water, add it to the soup, and boil for 2 minutes.

  2. Boil the vegetables until tender, then add them to the soup along with the wine and small diced meat from the tail.

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. Mushroom + winetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,632 recipes

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

  2. Arrowroot + mushroomtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Mushroom + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Arrowroot + winetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together153 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  5. Arrowroot + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together626 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox tail
Gives the soup its meaty flavour and body as it simmers in the stock.
Egg whites and shells
Collect fine particles as they set, leaving the soup clear.
Arrowroot
Thickens the soup slightly when briefly boiled, giving it a light body.
Wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich broth.

The step that matters

Clarifying the soup with egg whites and shells. The whites and shells must be stirred in while the soup is cold and then brought slowly to a simmer. This lets the proteins trap cloudy particles and form a raft that can be strained off. Heating too fast or stirring the raft back in leaves the soup cloudy.

Swap the arrowroot

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Arrowrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, egg, wine. 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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