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Ox-palates, Stewed

A stew of ox palates simmered with stock, vegetables, herbs, and a brown roux.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Ox-palates, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the palates

  1. Soak the ox palates in salt water for several hours, pressing them frequently to draw out mucus.

  2. Wash the palates in 2 or 3 changes of water, then place them in a stewpan and cover with cold water.

  3. Heat gradually and drain before the water boils.

  4. Scrape off the rough skin from one side.

Stew and press

  1. Return the palates to the stewpan, add stock, herbs, peppercorns, vegetables, and salt.

  2. Simmer gently for 4 hours.

  3. Press between two dishes until cold, then cut into 2‑inch squares.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In a separate stewpan, fry the butter and flour until a brown roux forms.

  2. Strain the stock from the palates into the roux, adding more stock if needed.

  3. Add the pieces of palate to the roux, heat, and serve garnished with fancily cut vegetables.

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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Ox palates
Main protein; slow stewing and pressing turns them tender and firm enough to cut into squares.
Stock
Provides the cooking liquid and, once strained, the body and flavour of the sauce.
Butter
Fat that is cooked with the flour to form the roux, adding richness and flavour to the sauce.
Flour
Forms the roux with the butter, thickening the strained stock into a sauce.

The step that matters

Heat gradually and drain before the water boils. Starting palates in cold water and heating slowly helps remove blood and impurities, which keeps the stock clear and the flavour clean. Boiling early can toughen the outer surface and cloud the liquid.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, carrot, turnip, parsley, thyme):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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