Skip to main content
Main

Ox-cheek Soup

A hearty soup made from ox head meat, onions, herbs, spices, and wine, simmered until tender and served with walnut ketchup and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Ox-cheek Soup

Why it works: Allspice and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ox-cheek Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Break up the ox head and remove the meat from the bones.

  2. In an earthen pan, combine the meat, fried onions, sweet herbs, allspice, pepper, and salt.

  3. Lay the bones on top of the meat and add 3 to 4 quarts of water.

  4. Cover the pan with coarse brown paper and tie it tightly.

Cook

  1. Cook in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 3 to 4 hours or simmer by the fire until the meat is tender.

  2. Remove the bones and pour the soup and meat into a pan.

  3. Skim off the fat and warm the soup before serving.

Season and serve

  1. Cut the meat into bite-sized pieces and season with walnut ketchup, cayenne, garlic, and wine or brandy.

  2. Optionally, add minced celery, carrot, and turnip to enhance the flavor.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Allspice + walnuttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together553 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Walnut + clovetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox head
Breaks down into tender meat and gelatin that give the soup body and richness.
Onions
Fried onions add sweetness and savory depth to the broth.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps brown the onions, adding aroma.
Sweet herbs
Release aromatic compounds into the water, flavoring the broth during the long cook.
Madeira or port wine
Adds acidity and sweetness that brighten and round out the rich broth.

The step that matters

Covering the pan tightly for the long cook. A tight seal keeps moisture and steam in, so the broth does not reduce too much while collagen from the bones slowly breaks down into tender meat and body.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, allspice, pepper, walnut, ketchup, vinegar, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, allspice, pepper, walnut, ketchup, vinegar, clove. 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.

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesTurnip SoupTurnip Soup43 recipesCelery StewCelery Stew25 recipes