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Ox Tail, Haricot Of

Take two fresh ox tails, joint them, and divide them into convenient-sized pieces. Put them into boiling water, and let them simmer for a quarter of an hour; then take them up, drain them, and trim them neatly. Cover the bottom of a stewpan with any trimmings of meat or poultry that may be at hand; put in the pieces of ox tail, and with them a large onion stuck with four cloves, a few sticks of celery, a large bunch of parsley, a bay-leaf, a piece of garlic the size of a small pea, a quarter of a blade of mace, a tea-spoonful of salt, a dozen pepper-corns, and two quarts of water or stock. Let them boil, then simmer gently until the meat will part easily from the bone. Carefully lift out the pieces of ox tail, and put them aside; strain the gravy, and return it to the saucepan. When it boils thicken with a little flour and butter, and put into it half a pound of carrots and half a pound of turnips neatly shaped, and six or eight medium-sized onions. Boil gently until the vegetables are tender, skim the sauce carefully, and put in the pieces of ox tail. Add a little more salt and pepper if required, and a table-spoonful of browning; simmer ten minutes longer, and serve very hot. A pint of white haricot beans is a great improvement to this dish. They should be put to soak the day before they are wanted, and boiled separately in plenty of water until tender; then drained, and put as a border round the dish in which the stew is served. Time, two hours and a half or more to boil the tails. Probable cost of tails, 1s. to 2s. each. Sufficient for seven or eight persons.