Skip to main content
Main

Ox-tail Soup

A hearty soup made from ox tail, vegetables, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Ox-tail Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the ox-tail

  1. Cut the ox-tail into pieces at the joints.

  2. Place the pieces in a stewpan, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes, then strain and dry the ox-tail pieces with a clean cloth.

Make the soup base

  1. Return the ox-tail to the stewpan with 2 oz. of butter.

  2. Wash, scrape, and cut one carrot in half, then add it to the stewpan.

  3. Peel the onion and insert the cloves into it.

  4. Wash the celery and trim the green tops, then add it to the stewpan.

  5. Add the onion, celery, peppercorns, and bouquet garni to the stewpan.

  6. Cover and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  7. Add 2 quarts of cold water and 1 teaspoon of salt.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 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-tail
Releases gelatin and meaty flavour into the broth as it simmers slowly.
Butter
Adds richness and carries aromatic flavour from the vegetables into the stock.
Carrots
Contribute sweetness and body to the broth as they soften.
Celery
Adds savoury, aromatic depth to the broth during cooking.

The step that matters

Boiling and drying the ox-tail before the simmer. A brief boil followed by draining removes scum and impurities from the meat, leading to a clearer broth. Drying the pieces helps them brown and sear in the butter rather than steam.

Swap the onion

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

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

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

More ox tail soup recipes

Clear 5 See all 157 →

You might also like

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