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French Ox-tail Soup

A hearty soup made with ox tail, onion, consomme, barley, and tomatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

French Ox-tail Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the ox-tail into small pieces.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the ox-tail, chopped onion, and a little butter.

  3. Cook until they begin to color slightly.

Simmer and serve

  1. Add the consomme and boil gently for two hours.

  2. Skim off the grease.

  3. Add the previously boiled barley and tomatoes.

  4. Boil for ten 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. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  2. Onion + barleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,166 recipes

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

  3. Barley + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together155 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + barleytop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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 body and rich flavor as it simmers.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it softens and colors in the butter.
Consomme
Forms the clear savory liquid base that the other ingredients cook in.
Boiled barley
Adds chewy texture and body to the soup.
Tomatoes
Contribute acidity and a fresh, bright flavor to the broth.

The step that matters

Skim off the grease. Fat rendered from the ox-tail rises to the surface during long simmering. Removing it before adding the barley and tomatoes keeps the soup clean-tasting and less greasy.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, butter, barley):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, barley. 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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