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Ox Tail En Compote
Cut two very fresh medium ox tails in two-inch pieces; thoroughly heat three tablespoons leaf lard in a braising pan, add the ox tails. Season with a level tablespoon salt, a half teaspoon pepper, and gently brown for thirty-five minutes, turning the pieces once in a while. Dredge in four tablespoons flour, stir well, and brown five minutes. Add one and a half gills claret, a half pint white broth, half pint demi-glace and half pint pure tomato juice; mix well until it comes to a boil, add two medium carrots cut in half-inch squares, two medium, white turnips and twelve very small white onions previously browned to a light colour. Tie in a bunch four branches parsley, two branches chervil, a sprig thyme, a sprig sage, two sprigs marjoram, one bay leaf, two cloves, a bean garlic and add to pan; lightly mix, cover pan, then set in oven for an hour and a half. Cut three medium, well-washed, peeled, raw potatoes in quarter-inch squares and add to pan, reset in oven forty-five minutes longer, remove, lift up meat and vegetables only and dress on a dish. Skim fat from surface of sauce, then strain through a Chinese strainer over the ox tail, sprinkle a little parsley over and serve.
A straightforward oxtail braise written for a professional kitchen that already had stock and demi-glace on hand. The measurements are period-standard but the seasoning and the oven setting need translating.
- Gills and pintsA gill is half a cup, so one and a half gills of claret is 3/4 cup. The half pints are one cup each — a cup of white broth, a cup of demi-glace, a cup of tomato juice, plus the wine, which is roughly enough to come two-thirds up the meat.
- Oven temperatureThe original gives no oven setting at all, only 'set in oven'. A modern equivalent is about 325F; the pan should barely tremble, not bubble. At a higher setting the meat tightens before the collagen has time to melt.
- White broth and demi-glaceWhite broth is unroasted veal or chicken stock, pale and neutral. Demi-glace is reduced brown stock with its own body — a good jarred one works, but if you substitute more plain stock you will need to reduce the finished sauce hard at the end to get the same coating consistency.
- SaltA level tablespoon of salt for two oxtails is high by current taste, particularly once a cup of demi-glace goes in, and the sauce reduces for over two hours. Season the meat lightly for the browning stage and correct at the end.
- Leaf lardLeaf lard is the soft fat from around the kidneys, prized for pastry more than for frying. Any rendered lard, beef dripping or neutral oil browns oxtail just as well; the fat is skimmed off before serving in any case.
- The thirty-five-minute browningThis is not an exaggeration. Oxtail is knobbly and wet, and a genuinely deep crust on all surfaces is what carries the colour and flavour of the finished sauce. Do it in batches if the pan is crowded, or nothing will brown at all.
- Herbs and the bean of garlicA "bean" of garlic is a single clove. Chervil is worth seeking out for its faint anise note, but a little extra parsley and a pinch of tarragon stands in. Tie the bundle in cheesecloth with the cloves so the sauce strains cleanly.
- The potatoesQuarter-inch dice added for the last forty-five minutes will largely break down and thicken the sauce, which may be the intention. Cut them closer to half an inch if you want them to arrive on the dish as vegetables.
- Chinese strainer and finishingA chinois — the conical fine-mesh strainer. Skim thoroughly first: oxtail throws a great deal of fat, and this dish is much better made a day ahead so the fat can be lifted off cold in a sheet.
- YieldTwo medium oxtails should serve about four as a main course; reckon roughly a pound of untrimmed oxtail per person.
Oxtail was cheap butcher's meat that repaid long cooking, and it turns up in the international-style cookbooks of this kind as proof that French braising technique could redeem any cut. Compote is a word more often met with fruit stewed slowly in syrup; applied to a braise it signals the same idea of ingredients softened together in a single covered vessel until they are almost one thing. The recipe's structure — brown, dredge with flour, moisten with wine and demi-glace, add a tied bouquet, finish in the oven — is textbook practice of the Escoffier era, and the assumption that a cook has both white broth and demi-glace standing ready suggests a book with professional kitchens in view. Oxtail's reputation as a poor man's cut has since inverted, and it is now among the more expensive things at the butcher's counter.