Skip to main content
Main

Ox-tails

A hearty stew of oxtails, onions, carrots, turnips, and a thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Turnip and capers match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 145 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Ox-tails

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the oxtail

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter and brown the oxtail pieces with the large onion.

  2. Boil the button onions in 3 pints of water for 15-20 minutes, then set aside.

  3. Pour the onion cooking liquid over the oxtails, adding enough boiling water to cover them.

Simmer

  1. Add the carrots and cook for 20 minutes before adding the turnips.

  2. Ensure the mixture simmers gently and skim off any fat while cooking.

  3. Once tender, strain the gravy through a sieve and keep the meat and vegetables warm.

Thicken and serve

  1. In a separate pan, melt 1 ounce of butter, stir in the flour to thicken, then gradually add the gravy until it boils.

  2. Strain the thickened gravy back into the stewpan and let it simmer until ready to serve.

  3. Arrange the oxtails around a serving dish, place the vegetables in the center, and pour the gravy over.

  4. Warm the button onions in boiling water and add them to the dish last.

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. Turnip + caperstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together145 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Oxtails
Slow simmering turns the connective tissue into tender, rich meat that flavors the gravy.
Flour
Starch thickens the strained gravy into a smooth, coating sauce when heated.
Butter
Fat carries flavor for browning the oxtails and enriches the finished gravy.
Carrots
Hold their shape during long simmering and add sweetness to the gravy.
Turnips
Soften during simmering and add a mild, slightly sweet earthy flavor to the stew.

The step that matters

Skimming fat while the stew simmers. Gentle simmering with regular skimming keeps the gravy clear and prevents greasy, cloudy broth. Rapid boiling emulsifies fat into the liquid and can toughen the meat.

Swap the capers

The recipe marks capers as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, carrot, turnip, flour, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Capersthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, carrot, turnip, flour, 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.

You might also like

Carrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipesTurnip SoupTurnip Soup43 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipes