Ox Tail Soup
The day before the soup is wanted, take three ox tails, cut them in pieces, and put on to fry in butter, first taking off all the fat; let them brown well, then set away till next day. Take off all the grease that may be about them, and put to boil in about three quarts of water; some salt, pepper and allspice to taste; from two to four onions, one carrot, one turnip and one head of celery. Boil four or five hours; lift out the meat; strain; choose some of the best of the meat, return it to the soup, and serve.
A straightforward long-simmered tail broth, with the browning done a day ahead so the fat can be lifted off cold. The two-day structure is the whole point of the method, not an inconvenience.
- What three ox tails meansButchers now sell oxtail cut into rounds, usually 2-3 lb per tail. Three whole tails is 6-9 lb of meat and bone, far more than three quarts of water will cover properly. One large tail, about 3 lb, suits the stated liquid; scale up the water if you use more.
- Brown properly, then chillThe browning is where the colour and flavour come from, so work in batches and let each piece take real colour rather than steaming in a crowded pan. Refrigerating overnight lets the fat set hard so it lifts off in a sheet, which is the cleanest way to defat a tail broth.
- Four or five hours is rightOxtail is heavily collagenous and genuinely needs this long at a bare simmer for the meat to loosen from the bone and the broth to gain body. Hold it at a lazy bubble; a rolling boil emulsifies fat into the liquid and clouds it.
- Allspice quantity"To taste" here means restraint. Four or five whole berries in three quarts is plenty, and whole berries are easier to strain out than ground.
- Vegetables are for the broth, not the bowlEverything is strained out, so cut the onion, carrot, turnip and celery in large chunks. A head of celery means the whole bunch in this period, not one rib; half a bunch including the leaves is closer to modern taste.
- Salt at the endSalting a broth that will reduce for five hours risks oversalting. Add a little at the start and correct after straining.
- Yield and servingPerhaps two quarts of finished soup after the long reduction, enough for six or so. Pick the meat off the bones while it is still warm, when it slips away most easily.
- If you want it clearerStrain through a fine sieve lined with damp cloth, then chill again and lift the last of the fat before reheating. Some nineteenth-century versions finished with a spoonful of sherry or Madeira at the table.
Oxtail soup entered English cookery as thrift: the tail was a cheap by-product of the slaughterhouse, sold off with the offal, and its high proportion of bone and connective tissue makes a broth with a gelatinous richness no prime cut can match. By the later nineteenth century it appeared as a clear soup on hotel and club menus and in tinned form from commercial soup packers, so that a household book like this one could assume readers knew it. The two-day method reflected a kitchen without refrigeration in the modern sense: a night in the cold larder set beef fat hard enough to lift off in a sheet, which many cooks preferred to skimming a hot pot.