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Soup

Ox-Tail

A soup made with chopped ox tail, butter, broth, salt, pepper, and optional tomatoes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Ox-Tail

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a pot, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped ox-tail and stir until browned.

  3. Remove excess fat, then add broth and bring to a boil.

Simmer and serve

  1. Reduce heat and simmer until the ox-tail is tender.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, and add tomatoes if using.

  3. Simmer gently for an additional 15 minutes if tomatoes are added.

  4. Serve the soup with the meat included.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Butter + tomatotop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Ox-tail
Provides the meat and collagen that become tender and enrich the broth during long simmering.
Butter
Adds fat for browning the ox-tail and carries flavour into the soup.
Broth
Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries its savoury flavour.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and a fresh, tangy flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Remove excess fat, then add broth and bring to a boil. Excess fat left in the pot will float into the broth and make the soup greasy. Skimming it before the liquid boils keeps the broth clean and the flavour balanced.

Swap the tomato

The recipe marks tomato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, 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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