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Ox-Tail Soup
Cut the tails into joints, wash the pieces, and fry them in a small quantity of butter, next drain the pieces of tail and put them in a stewpan with a ham bone, two or three carrots and onions peeled and sliced, a head of celery, washed and cut in convenient sized pieces, a bunch of sweet herbs, a blade of mace and a few cloves and peppercorns. Cover the contents of the stewpan with water, place it over the fire, and boil and skin until the scum ceases to rise; then cover and boil slowly until the tail is quite tender. When ready, cut the meat into small pieces; strain and skim the soup, return it to the stewpan, thicken with flour, and add a wineglassful of sherry wine, and two tablespoonfuls of mushroom catsup. Put in the pieces of meat again and let the soup simmer at the side of the fire for a few minutes longer. Turn the soup into a soup tureen, and serve with sippets of toast, or croutons of fried bread.
Oscar gives the method but almost no quantities, which was normal in a professional kitchen where the cook knew the proportions. Here is what to fill in.
- Quantities to assumeTwo oxtails, about 3 to 4 lb jointed, with roughly 4 quarts of water, two or three carrots, two onions, one head of celery and a ham bone will give eight generous servings. Ask the butcher to cut the tail at the joints if it comes whole.
- "Boil and skin"A printer's slip for skim. Bring the pot to a bare boil, lift off the grey scum as it rises, and once it stops, drop the heat to a slow simmer. A rolling boil will emulsify the fat and cloud the broth beyond saving.
- Time"Until the tail is quite tender" means 3 to 4 hours at a simmer. Oxtail is rich in collagen and connective tissue and is unpleasant until it is falling from the bone, so it wants long, slow cooking rather than fast.
- DegreasingOxtail throws an enormous amount of fat. The cleanest method is to strain the broth, chill it overnight, and lift off the solid cap the next day, then reheat and finish. Skimming a hot pot will not get it all.
- A wineglassfulAbout 2 fl oz, or a quarter cup, of dry sherry. Amontillado or oloroso suits the dish better than fino.
- Mushroom catsupA thin, dark, salty liquid made by salting and pressing mushrooms, still sold by a few British makers. Worcestershire sauce, or a mix of soy sauce and a little mushroom powder, gives a comparable savoury lift.
- A blade of maceThe dried outer covering of the nutmeg, sold in blades or ground. One blade is roughly a quarter teaspoon ground, though blades vary in size. Bundle the mace, cloves and peppercorns in cheesecloth with the herbs so they strain out easily.
- ThickeningTwo to three tablespoons of flour worked into an equal weight of soft butter, whisked into the simmering broth in small pieces, gives a light body without lumps. The soup should coat a spoon, not stand up in it.
- SaltThe ham bone salts the broth as it cooks, so season only at the end, after the sherry and catsup have gone in.
- SippetsSmall triangles or dice of bread, toasted or fried in butter, handed at the table rather than floated in the tureen so they stay crisp.
Oxtail soup was a thrift dish that rose in the world. Tails were a byproduct of the hide trade, cheap and long-cooking, and the soup is often traced in England to the Huguenot refugee communities of Spitalfields in the eighteenth century, though the attribution is traditional rather than documented. By the nineteenth century it had become a fixture of London taverns, then of hotel menus on both sides of the Atlantic, and clear oxtail and thick oxtail were standing entries on printed bills of fare. Its presence in Oscar Tschirky's book, among far grander preparations, reflects the economy expected of a large hotel kitchen, where cheap cuts fed the stockpot alongside the expensive ones. The sherry, mace and mushroom catsup are what lift a scrap cut into something a dining room could charge for.