No. 1320

Oxtails a la Castellane

Queues de Boeuf a la Castellane

Cut some large oxtails in three inch lengths, soak for an hour, drain, and blanch the pieces for half an hour, then throw them into cold water. Mask the bottom of a saucepan with fragments of bacon, roots, and sliced onions. Put the pieces of tails on top, and moisten with sufficient broth to cover them entirely; boil the liquid, skim, and let simmer slowly for three hours. Drain them, trim, and return to the saucepan; strain and remove the fat from the broth, pour it over the tails, and finish cooking slowly for one hour. Braise some whole chestnuts (No. 654), and when done, arrange the oxtails pyramid form on a dish, surround by the braised chestnuts, reduce the stock with a little espagnole sauce (No. 414), and some blanched celery cut into quarter of an inch squares; when it is cooked pour the sauce over and serve.

← No. 1319 Marrow Bones on Toast Beef No. 1321 Oxtails a la Chipolata →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's method is a straightforward two-stage braise: a long simmer in broth over aromatics, then a shorter finish in the strained, degreased liquid. Nothing here is difficult, but several of the terms and cross-references need translating.

The hinge: blanch, then chillThe half-hour blanch followed by cold water is the standard first step for a clear braise, and helps the pieces hold their shape. Skip it and there is a good deal more scum to deal with in the sauce.
"Roots" and "fragments of bacon"Roots means carrot, turnip, parsnip and often celery root, roughly sliced; with the onion and bacon it is a bed of mirepoix laid to keep the meat off direct heat. Use unsmoked slab bacon or pancetta trimmings rather than modern sweet-cured breakfast bacon, which will sugar the braise.
Espagnole (No. 414)A brown sauce built on veal stock and a long-cooked brown roux, thickened over hours. A well-reduced brown veal or beef stock, lightly thickened, stands in; the point is body and gloss on the reduced braising liquid, not a distinct sauce flavor.
Braised chestnuts (No. 654)Presumably peeled whole chestnuts gently cooked in stock until tender but intact; the recipe only gives the cross-reference. Vacuum-packed cooked chestnuts, warmed in a little of the braising liquid, are the practical modern substitute; they break up if stirred, so add them at the end.
Oven versus stovetop"Simmer slowly" on a coal range translates well to a covered pot in a 300-325F oven, which holds the liquid below a boil on its own. Three hours plus one is realistic for oxtail; go by feel, as the meat should pull from the bone without collapsing.
Degrease properlyOxtail throws a great deal of fat. The instruction to strain and remove the fat before the final hour is not optional here, and chilling the strained broth so the fat lifts off in a sheet does the job better than skimming hot.
The celeryBlanched celery cut in quarter-inch dice goes into the sauce near the end and is cooked through in the reduction. The recipe's phrasing suggests blanching the celery before cutting it.
YieldLarge oxtails run 2-3 lb each; two of them, cut in three-inch lengths, serve four to six generously. Buy more than looks necessary, as the bone-to-meat ratio is high.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer wrote The Epicurean (1894) out of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and the book's structure -- every preparation numbered, every sauce and garnish cross-referenced -- reflects a brigade kitchen where a cook was expected to know what No. 414 meant without being told. Oxtail was cheap meat given expensive treatment, a habit French cooking had long made respectable: the long braise converts a bony, gelatinous cut into something rich enough to serve pyramided on a dish under a glossy sauce. Dishes named a la Castellane appear across nineteenth-century French repertory, and as with most such names the connection between the label and the garnish is decorative rather than documented. What can be said is that the dish sits among the period's autumn and winter braises, alongside chipolata, the very next entry in this section.