oxtail

[ursusarctos]

I'm just making some oxtail broth at the moment and planning to use half of it for spinach soup base tonight and half plus the meat for a mung bean soup tomorrow. Never used it before (never occurred to me!) but saw it in the grocery store and it was fairly cheap and included bones (they never include bones in supermarkets here)! So I thought it would make a good broth. Anyone else have experience cooking with oxtail?

[CageFreeFamily]

Yep, I usually use oxtail in my beef stocks. I roast it first, cover with water (just barely) and simmer it with celery, carrot, onion, garlic, bay leaf. I deglaze the roasting pan with some red wine and add that liquid to the stock pot. I find that beef stock has to be reduced more than chicken to get a rich flavor. The aroma can be really deceiving.

If the stock reduces by 1/2 and is still weak in flavor (which it sometimes is) I sautee some tomato paste until it browns a little and then add that to the stock with a dribble of black strap molasses.

[ursusarctos]

Oh interesting CageFreeFamily, that sounds really good. I just threw mine in a pot of cold water and simmered for several hours I'm planning to simmer it more with just the bones after the pot is free from the soup I'm making. Good to know about the broth needing to reduce more. I am so new to broths!

[motherbirth]

I'm going to try making oxtail soup tomorrow. I'll post how it went.

[ursusarctos]

Great, motherbirth! I'm interested to hear.
Btw, both soups I made turned out great, and I totally attribute it to the broth because there was nothing special about them otherwise... what a complex, satisfying flavor you get from oxtail!

[yitlan]

Second post down has an oxtail soup similar to the one my chinese grandfather would make:
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?...2-oxtail-soup/
Simple and flavorful.