I was watching Iron Chef: Battle Oxtail with my partner the other night, and he turned to me and asked, "What's oxtail?" This inspired me to write a post on this delicious but relatively unknown cut of meat.
Oxtail: What It Is, And What To Do With It
Oxtail is the tail of a cow. In olden days, it came from the tail of an ox, but now it comes from the tail of a cow of either sex.
The tail is skinned and cut into sections; each section has a tailbone with some marrow in the center, and a bony portion of meat surrounding the tail. The meat is gelatinous, and is best used for stocks, soups, and braises. It's common in Italian and Korean cuisine to see oxtail used as an ingredient.
Oxtail requires a long time to cook since it's so bony and fatty; this is the perfect braising meat. At one point, oxtail was considered a part of the animal that only poor people ate, due to its high fat content and long cooking time. This made it cheap. However, as gourmands discovered oxtail in recent years, the prices went up.
Here are some recipes to try:
Oxtail Braised in Red Wine (The Greedy Gourmet)
Jamaican Oxtail Stew (Food in Jamaica)
Coda alla Vaccarina - a famous Italian dish. (Apple Pie, Pastis, & Pâté)
Chinese Braised Oxtail Stew (Sunday Night Dinner)
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Ingredients - Meat, braise, stew, oxtailRelated Links
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Good Questions - Light Meals: Chicken Milanese
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- Ex-Vegetarians: What Was Your First Post-Veg Meal?
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one or two individual oxtails make a nice addition to chicken stock, as well. i know some people have reservations about sullying their stock with another type of meat, but it does give a nice rich flavor.
view makyo's profile
My mom uses them for homemade pho, which is not as cheap or easy or as fast as just ordering it at a restaurant, but when I'm home for the summer without a chinatown, them's the breaks.
Jaden has a good recipe that's pretty similar to the one my mom has settled on. http://steamykitchen.com/blog/2008/02/09/vietnamese-beef-noodle-soup-pho/
view strmtrprbthngst's profile
I grew up eating oxtail. I loved sucking the little cartilage off the bones. Yum. My mom just braised it with cans of whole tomatoes and carrots and we eat it with rice.
view mstina's profile
Yummy. I like to make osso bucco with ox tail. Osso Bucco usually uses veal shanks but ox tail or lamb shanks always make good substitutes in an osso bucco recipe.
view Mrs Olkid's profile
I like oxtails, but not as the only braising meat - they are quite fatty. Mixing half oxtails and half stew meat in a beef burgonogne (sp?) is absolutely divine. Perfectly fatty and rich, without being overwhelming.
view brenjay's profile
I had braised oxtail for the first time in a local Basque restaurant and it was delicious! I still keep meaning to go back and get it again but maybe I should just make it myself...
view Anne (in Reno)'s profile
Oxtail is fabulous. In Trinidad, we either stew it or make oxtail soup. I once began a now very neglected foodblog, but if anyone is interested in the post on Trini oxtail stew, here's the link:
http://theloopeats.blogspot.com/2008/07/oxtail-stew-and-macaroni-pie.html
view islandchild's profile
@islandchild,
I love stewed oxtail. It's a must-have when I'm in the Caribbean (Cayman).
One of the best places to get it is in the hot deli at the grocery store (usually on the way to the beach.) It comes seasoned with scotch bonnets and has giant lima beans in it.
Have you ever made roti?
view art's profile
I grew up eating oxtail, as I'm from a Korean family. We had them cooked with carrots and daikon or simmered until the meat fell of the bones, served in an opaque white broth. My dad says when he first came to the States, back in the '70s, his mother could get oxtails for free from the butcher. Sadly no more.
view mellis's profile
I have seen oxtail at the market but never bought it as I was unsure what it was. I just started cooking a few yrs ago and love to be adventurous but I was scared of this! I may have to give it a try now.
luv2cook
view luv2cook's profile
@ art,
Glad to hear you know about the stewed oxtail! We don't do ours with lima beans, but I'm sure everything else is about the same.
As for roti, my grandmother can make any kind of roti your heart desires, but I am yet to completely master the technique. I think I have to grow into the patience for dough. But the curry that goes inside the roti, that I can make real nice.
view islandchild's profile