Category: Soups

Oxtail Soup–A Peasant Recipe Goes Gourmet

Time was when oxtails were cheap.  In fact, if you bought some hamburger and a pot roast from one of the butchers in Hayward, Wisconsin, where I grew up in the 1950’s, he would often give you an oxtail free if you asked for it.  When hamburger was 30¢ a pound, oxtails were a nickel or dime.  

Oxtails were peasant food.  That was probably why my mother made oxtail soup, and I know that was why I made it when Jerri and I were first married. 

How times have changed.  When I told a friend what I had to pay for oxtails last week, he said, “Why not use prime rib?”  However, when I make oxtail soup, I don’t want to skimp on ingredients.  Prime rib is good, but it won’t make one of the finest beef soups you will ever taste. 

From what I read, gourmet chefs are responsible for the high cost of oxtails today.  They’ve discovered that oxtails are a wonderful meat, whether braised or barbecued, used to make a paté, ragout, terrine, stew or…soup.  And since there is only one tail per cow, oxtails provide a perfect example of the law of supply and demand.

Mr. Olson, the butcher who supplied us with many oxtails when I was a boy, would have thought you were crazy if you had told him that people would some day pay more for oxtails than hamburger.  Today you are competing with people who pay $5 for a cup of coffee, but you need an oxtail no matter what the cost. 

As is true with any meat you buy, the cost of oxtails varies from store to store.  In the past year, I have seen prices from under six to over ten dollars per pound, which is pretty darned expensive for meat that is mostly bones and gristle.  However, the connective tissue and bones are the reason why oxtails make such great soup.   The long slow simmering releases the gelatin and flavor, which creates the delicious full-bodied broth that characterizes this wonderful vegetable beef soup.   

This is my recipe from over forty years ago.  I don’t make it too often today: Oxtails are pricey, but I can resist temptation only so long.  Make this soup once, and you’ll begin saving pennies for the next batch.  

INGREDIENTS:

1 oxtail, 3 to 4 lbs., disjointed (cut into sections)

4 or 5 slices bacon

1- 3 T butter

1 medium onion

4 – 5 cups water

4 cups beef broth

1/2 — 1  tsp. salt

1/2  tsp. freshly ground black pepper 

2 bay leaves 

4 whole cloves

3 or 4 garlic cloves

1 large carrot

1 small diced rutabaga

1 medium diced parsnip

2 ribs celery

1/4 cup parsley 

1 small to medium tomato

1 cup pearl barley

1/2 tsp. thyme

1/2 tsp. marjoram

1/2 tsp. basil

1 cup dry red wine

2 T butter

2 T flour

PROCEDURE:

Cut the bacon into small pieces and brown them slowly in a large soup pot until the bacon is crisp.  Remove the bacon but leave the bacon fat in the pan.  You should have at least two tablespoons of fat to brown the oxtails.  Add a tablespoon of butter if you wish.

  

Increase the heat and brown the oxtails, turning them to brown on all sides.  While the oxtails are browning, chop the onion. Remove the oxtails when they have browned.  If necessary drain excess fat.  Reduce heat to low.  Add the chopped onions to about two tablespoons of fat and stir them until they are translucent.  Return the crisp bacon and the oxtails to the pot.  Increase the heat and add the water, broth and salt and pepper.  

Remove the paper from the garlic toes and cut them in half.  Put them with the bay leaves and cloves in a spice bag or tied in a piece of cheesecloth and drop it in the pot.  Bring to boiling, reduce the heat, cover and let simmer for three to five hours, stirring occasionally and checking to make certain that there is plenty of liquid covering the oxtails.  Add more water if necessary.  The meat should come easily off the bones.  If it does not, let it simmer a bit longer.

When the oxtails have cooked long enough, turn off the heat and use tongs or a slotted spoon to remove them from the liquid.  Remove and discard the spice bag.  Let the oxtails and broth cool.  After it has cooled,  chill it in the refrigerator.  Skim most of the fat off the broth.  If all is going well, you will see that that cold broth resembles a soft gelatin.  

While the broth is cooling, remove the meat from the oxtails with a small knife, taking care to separate the fat from the meat.  You will end up with shredded beef which you will return to the broth. 

Peel and dice the parsnip and rutabaga and scrub and dice the carrot and celery stalks.  You should have about 1 cup each of carrot, rutabaga and parsnip and about one and one-half to two cups of celery.  Remove the stem scar from the tomato and dice it quite fine.  Chop the parsley fine.  

Heat the broth to a gentle simmer.  Stir the meat and vegetables into the broth along with the the cup of barley.  Add the wine, thyme, marjoram and basil and parsley.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer very gently for about an hour, stirring occasionally.

Make a roux by browning two tablespoons of flour in two tablespoons of butter over moderate heat.   The roux should be a dark golden brown to help color the soup.  Remove the roux from the heat and carefully add about one cup of the soup broth, stirring well.  Return this mixture to the soup and continue simmering for five to ten minutes.  Taste and correct the seasoning if necessary.

Serve with a green salad and fresh bread.

As with most meat and vegetable soups, oxtail soup is even better warmed up.  It can be frozen and reheated for quick lunches or dinners.

NOTES:  If you don’t have beef broth in the house, use three bouillon cubes with the water.  Feel free to brown some cubes of steak with the oxtails if you want more meat in the soup.

Julia Child’s French Onion Soup

Last week a friend asked me what he could do with yellow onions.  “Make onion soup!” I answered.

He asked me if I had a good recipe I could share with him and his daughter who had gotten a 50 pound bag of yellow onions.  I said that I would be happy to share the best onion soup recipe in the world with them.  In the exchange for the recipe, I was the clear winner:  He left me three pounds of onions.

The recipe is from Julia Child’s Mastering The Art of French Cooking.  Like every recipe I have tried from that wonderful cookbook, Julia’s instructions are easy to follow and produce wonderful dishes.  Some tips and suggestions are covered in the notes.

Here is Julia’s complete recipe.  She begins with a short prefatory note:

The onions for an onion soup need a long, slow cooking in butter and oil, then a long, slow simmering in stock for them to develop the deep, rich flavor which characterizes a perfect brew.  You should therefore count on 2 1/2 hours at least from start to finish.  Though the preliminary cooking in butter requires some watching, the actual simmering can proceed almost unattended.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 lbs. or about 5 cups of thinly sliced yellow onions
3 T butter
1 T vegetable oil
A heavy-bottomed, 4 quart covered saucepan
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. sugar
3 T flour
2 quarts boiling brown stock, canned beef bouillon, or 1 quart of boiling water and 1 quart of stock or bouillon.
1/2 cup dry white wine or dry white vermouth
Salt and pepper to taste
3 T cognac
Rounds of hard-toasted French bread (see recipe following)
1 to 2 cups grated Swiss or Parmesan cheese

CROUTES — HARD-TOASTED FRENCH BREAD:
12 to 16 slices of French bread, cut 3/4 to 1 inch thick
Olive oil or beef drippings
A cut clove of garlic

PROCEDURE FOR THE SOUP:

Cook the onions slowly with the butter and oil in a covered saucepan for 15 minutes.

Uncover, raise heat to moderate and stir in the salt and sugar.  Cook for 30 to 40 minutes stirring frequently, until the onions have turned an even, deep golden brown.  Sprinkle in the flour and stir for 3 minutes.

Off heat, blend in the boiling liquid.  Add the wine and season to taste.  Simmer partially covered for 30 to 40 minutes or more, skimming occasionally.  Correct seasoning.

Set aside uncovered until ready to serve.  Then reheat to the simmer.

Just before serving, stir in the cognac.  Pour into a soup tureen or soup cups over the rounds of bread and pass the cheese separately.

PROCEDURE TO MAKE THE CROUTES:

Place the bread in one layer in a roasting pan and bake in a preheated 325 degree oven for about half an hour, until it is thoroughly dried out and lightly browned.

Halfway through the baking, each side may be basted with a teaspoon of olive oil or beef drippings; and after baking, each piece may be rubbed with cut garlic.

NOTES:  After making this soup for over 30 years, we have learned a few things that affect this soup.  First, do not use “sweet” onions.  Second, be patient in making this soup.  Do not hurry the onions as they are browning.  You may end up with black onions, which means starting over,  perhaps a trip to buy more onions or–worse–canned soup if the stores are closed on a holiday.

Third, though I hesitate to admit it, I have never made beef stock.  I use canned broth, and the soup is still darned good.   Heat the broth just until it steams while the onions are browning.

Fourth, cognac is expensive; a good domestic brandy works just fine.   Today, I use dry or semi-dry Madeira wine instead of cognac or brandy because we prefer the flavor it adds to the soup.  This is the one major change I have made in Julia’s recipe.  You might want to try the recipe both ways to see which flavor you prefer.

And fifth, for the dry white wine, sauvignon blanc or Chardonnay are both good choices.  If you plan on serving wine with the soup, choose one that you enjoy drinking to use in the soup.

When making the croutes I arrange the bread on cookie sheets.  If you discover that you are out of garlic cloves, you can mix a dash or two of garlic powder into a couple of tablespoons of olive oil to baste the toasted bread rounds.  Don’t overdo the garlic; you want just a hint of garlic on the bread.

Instead of pouring soup over the toasted rounds of bread I usually float a croute on the soup in each soup bowl, sprinkle a little Swiss cheese on top and offer extra cheese at the table for guests to add more if they like.  We prefer a good aged Swiss cheese to Parmesan on this soup, but try both to see which one you like better.