Bringing Oxtails Into My Cooking

I cook with oxtails, but I know only three ways to use them: 1) as meat-bones for making bone broths, 2) as part of making soups, and 3) as part of making stews. Predominately, they are used to make a long simmering, bone broth that brings flavor and nutrition to a variety of meals; even when the meals themselves do not feature actual meat. Find out more about cooking oxtails in my house, where I pull from South African, Jamaican, and Korean cuisines.

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My Cooking Gem is Broth

Why Consume Bone Broth

Some cuisines and traditional foods have this type of broth in their most important dishes. So to keep those traditional foods alive and part of current day, they are made exactly as expected.

Some vegetarians will not eat meat, but will accept clear bone broth as they have experienced biological difficulties with getting all the nutrients their body needs and a medical professional or nutritionist has recommended eating fish and/or eating bone broth.

Some older people who are having difficulty with their appetite or eating, are also fed bone broth as a way to keep up nutrition. So perhaps they eat congee with bone broth or drink a cup a day.

Bone Broth as Cooking Element

Other than a dashi, mushroom, or miso based broth, I rely heavily on meat-based sauces to provide a depth of flavor, and key nutritional elements in my dishes.

• As cooking broth for cereals, grains, seeds: rice, buckwheat, barley, or quinoa.
• The base for sauces like Savory Lemon Velouté.
• As cooking broth for pasta: couscous, rice pilaf with pasta, risotto.
• As the base for various soups, like Mom’s chicken soup.
• The base for many gravies, along with meat drippings.
• Also as the base for various stews like Moroccan Lentil stew.
• Base of porridge.

Broth Nutrition

HealthLine notes these benefits:

• Animal bones are rich in calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, and other trace minerals.
• The gelatin in bone broth supports healthy digestion, and may be beneficial for individuals with leaky gut, as well as irritable and inflammatory bowel diseases.
• The amino acids in bone broth can help fight inflammation. 
• Glycine has been shown to promote sleep, thus sipping it before bed may help improve quality of sleep, mental function, and memory.

Environmentally Defined

Cuisines reflect the environment in which they grew, if ocean facing, food that swims in the ocean becomes part of the culture and thus cuisine. If the environment is hilly or alpine, there is a good chance the food that can be pastured such as cows and dairy products become part of the cuisine.

Cultural History

In addition to flavor, nutrition, and food that could be natively grown due to the environment, I use meat-based liquids because some of the cuisines I favor use these broths or sauces to create their distinct flavors. For instance, there is no good Vietnamese Phở without a proper Phở broth.

Inexpensive Nutrition

Once upon a time oxtails were very cheap cuts of meats, but they and beef bones have been used for ages to make bone broth exactly because the cost for this nutrition-source was low.

Now oxtails cost more, but when you cannot afford higher priced cuts of meat you can still use these oxtails, and what meat comes with them, to feed many more mouths by creating soups or stews.

For older people and children, when serving oxtail-based broth, I am very careful to run the broth through a sieve to prevent any bones from getting into the broth. If I am going to serve the meat with the broth, I carefully remove the meat from the bones as I worry about potential choking hazards.

I also do not remove all the fat from the broth, for the flavor is in the fat. So I pay attention to the source of the meat, that it be free-ranging, organic and from a small to medium-sized farm or ranch.

Oxtail Bone Broth Recipe

I have posted the recipe here (Oxtail Broth), but have added much more detail in the recipe directions below. Oxtails are literally the chopped up cow’s tail; which means it is mainly bone with a bit of meat. For this recipe a slow cooker is needed to make a proper bone broth. It will cook for 24 hours.

Mise en Place

• Set up a meat workstation (plastic cutting board, discard bowl, damp towel to wipe up any mess, sharp knife, etc.)
• Preheat oven to 400F.
• Prep baking sheet with parchment
• Setup slow cooker and set to high
• Bring out a strainer and lidded containers for straining and freezing the broth.
• Defrost or bring out meat from fridge to attain room temperature.
• Review meat, cut off any bad areas you do not want.
• Rinse the raw meat, pat dry, then salt and rest while you do the prep.

Start Slow Cooking Water

• Place empty slow cooker on high.
• This will have to cook for ~24 hours, so put it someplace that is not under cabinetry, and where it can be left undisturbed, yet easily checked.
• Meanwhile, boil in a pot on the stove ~5C water so it can start to heat up. (I am trying to add enough boiling water to fill the slow cooker half-way; to give the heating process a little boost. Otherwise it will take a while to get the temperature up to what I want.)
• Pour the boiling water into the warming slow cooker.

Bone Prep is Roasting or Boiling

Boiling bones: Many people will decide to wash, soak (~1 hour), and then boil the bones (~10 minutes) in order to remove the impurities. Before putting them into a slow cooker or soup pot for making the broth. I have also heard of blanching the bones for ~10 minutes before using. This technique will result in a lighter colored and lighter flavored bone broth.

Roasting bones: I prefer to wash, dry, salt and roast the bones before cooking them in water. After roasting I carefully dispose of the fat, for the roasting pulled out impurities and I do not want that in my food, so I toss the parchment and oil. At the same time, I do know some people who will sieve the fat and then dump that liquid into the broth water, thinking the impurities have been killed or cooked. This is my preferred method as roasting adds an extra depth of flavor and richness, and the broth is darker colored and aromatic.

Here is my roasting method.

• Preheat oven to 400F.
• Raw oxtails should be washed, dried, then seasoned with salt and pepper, and placed on a parchment lined baking sheet to roast for a 45-60 minutes. The length of time depends upon the size and thickness of the bones and meat.
• Flip the bones over half way through the cooking time.
• Once done cooking, I use tongs to move the meat/bones from the baking sheet directly into the slow cooker. I will usually dump the fat with the parchment paper into the garbage. (Occasionally I reserve some for use in the dogs’ food.)
• Add more water to the slow cooker to get it to the top line, cover and cook.
  • The normal water to bone ratio: 3:1 by weight; this is the minimum amount of bones to water you should use, but you can add more bones if you want. (Really depends upon the bone’s size.)
• Add a couple tablespoons vinegar at this point to help soften the bones and release its nutrition.
• Place the lid on and walk away.

Broth Cooking

Bone broth has critical time points, at which the liquid can be pulled. At 12-hours you have a good broth for use in simple soups. At 24 hours the bones are still firm but the leaching of nutrients from those bones has begun and this is a good bone broth. At 48 hours the bones will be soft and everything has been leached into the liquid.

• Check every 3h or so, skimming off the dirty-foam that can start floating on the top of the water. Add more water if needed, but keep the level an inch or two from the very top of the slow cooker.
• At the 8 hour mark the beef parts will start to fall apart when you try to fish them out of the broth. You can stop here and use the broth, but I continue to cook. At the 12 hour mark I am ready to remove ~4C of broth, replacing it with more water and let it continue to cook.
  • The point here is to have a little extra clear broth, without the fatty texture.
  • I do not let the stock sit around to get bacteria but also do not put extremely hot food into the freezer as it lowers the overall temp. Before I move the hot container of broth into the fridge, I let it stand on the counter to lower closer to room temperature.
• At 24 hours it is time to turn off the slow cooker. I let it cool a bit, for ~30 minutes so I can handle the broth better.
• Then start by getting my freezer containers ready.
• Strain the broth to catch all bones and meat, with the liquid going into a lidded container.
• This broth should be a brownish one, from light to dark depending upon how dark you roasted the bones.

Food Waste

I generally take meat off the bones, or meat caught in the colander, and place those in a container to augment the dogs’ food. There is not much, and most of its nutrition is in the liquid, but the dogs seem to enjoy the addition. I toss all the bones as they should be spent after 24 hours in very hot water.

Miscellaneous

Labels: Important is to label the broth freezer container and date it, like Oxtail Broth (date). You want to use the oldest first.

Type of broth: 24 hour bone broth or stock is more nutritious, viscous and flavorful than a regular broth since we are cooking it long enough for collagen to leach from the bones. 12 hour bone broth is generally nutritious, clear, lighter, and mild in flavor since the combination of bone and meat have not yet given their all.

No aluminum soup pots: Do not use aluminum stock pans for people, like me, can taste the aluminum in the resulting broth. I prefer a slow cooker with a ceramic insert for the deed, or a tall steel stock pot.

Veggies: I do not add anything but the oxtails, a bit of vinegar, and water to my broth. The reason I do not add anything is that I am not sure what the broth is going to be used for in the future. I keep it plain and rely on the roasted tastiness of the tails themselves to present a base flavor. Veggies and herbs or spice come in once I am ready to cook an actual dish.

Aromatics: Others add spices, herbs, and veggies to add flavor and aromatics to the broth. They go in when the broth first starts and if you still drain the final broth, use a cheese cloth in the sieve to catch all the mushy veggies as well as the bones.

Broth in Soups or Stews: If I am making a soup out of this broth, I will use the broth and add spice, herbs and veggies (onion, garlic, celery, carrots, etc.) to start flavoring the soup.

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South African Stew

The TheNomadicCook gave me this idea a couple years ago and is a great recipe to follow. Per usual, I made some changes to make it mine, but this is his recipe redone. For this recipe a heavy bottomed soup pot is required.

I would choose the larger uncooked oxtails with the larger amount of meat and rinse-dry-salt-roast those bones at 400F, for 45 minutes. Then let cool on the counter, while starting the soup in a heavy bottomed soup pot. Once cool, I would put the meat into the fridge until needed.

• Start by sautéing 2T oil in a soup pot and, once hot, add 2 sliced white onions, 3 roughly diced garlic, and 2 bay leaves until fragrant. Be careful not to burn the garlic.
• Add 2 chopped de-skinned and de-seeded tomatoes and mix it around.
• Then add 1T dried and crushed oregano, 1/4t ground fresh nutmeg, 1T brown sugar, and 1 clove carefully grated on a planer. Carefully stir the spice around for a few minutes to incorporate all the flavors.
• Add 2C oxtail broth. Put a lid on the soup pot and start cooking at a very low simmer. Checking occasionally to make sure there is enough liquid, if not, add more broth.
• If precooked meat added:
  • At 1 hour, chop and add 3 medium yellow potatoes, 2-3 carrots, and the meat.
  • At 2 hour, get ready to serve
• If raw meat added:
  • At 1 hour, add the meat
  • At 2 hour add the potatoes and carrots
  • At 3 hour serve
• SERVE: Mix the dish well, remove bay leaves, and serve with some kind of flat or yeast bread.

Jamaican Oxtail Stew

This is a variation of a stew on JamaicanFoodAndRecipes. I have made a version of this stew, based on something I tasted at a Jamaican little dive on Telegraph Street, about a mile from UC Berkeley. A lovely and talkative cook served us, talked about the food with me, and reminded us not to choke on bones. Later she told us it was okay to use fingers to get all the meat off the bone.

Day 1: Prep the meat

• Wash 2# oxtails with 2T vinegar and 1 lime juiced in a bowl (and after squeezing, I toss the lime in the water as well).
• Then drain away the liquid, and dry the bowl and meat to get rid of all excess water.
• Trim excess fat to prevent the eventual sauce from getting too greasy.
• In that same washing bowl, combine the cleaned + trimmed oxtails with:
  • 2t salt
  • 3T meat seasoning (salt, pepper, smoky paprika)
  • 1 sliced yellow onion
  • 1 sliced scallion (white and green parts)
  • 3 minced garlic
  • 2t grated ginger
  • 1T Worcestershire
  • 1 deseeded and diced jalapeño
  • 1T thyme leaves
• Combine the ingredients until the oxtails are completely coated in the mixture, then cover the bowl and leave to marinate overnight in the fridge. 

Day 2: Cook the Stew

• Next day, separate the oxtail from the mixture, and set aside; keeping both ingredients. 
• Get a heavy bottomed soup pot with lid, and place on the stove, no heat yet.
• Add 2T oil in a skillet and sear the oxtails on all sides until browned, careful not to burn.
• Place the seared meat into the soup pot, add the separated marinade mixture, and turn on the heat.
• Add these to the soup pot:
  • 2 de-skinned and de-seeded diced tomatoes
  • 10 all-spice seeds (aka Jamaica pepper)
  • 1 chopped bell pepper (your choice of green, yellow, orange, or red) 
• Add 2C of Oxtail broth, lid, and cook for ~3h at a slow simmer.
• At this point add 2C canned white beans (better is butterbeans) and 2T catsup. Stir well into the soup and then taste.
• Add salt, pepper, brown sugar, and if you want ”heat” add chili flakes.
• Then add the lid and simmer for another 15min. The sauce should thicken.

Serve the stew with white rice and the website referenced above adds peas.

Korean Oxtail Soup (Kkori Gomtang)

My variation fitted most closely with HipFoodieMom so am referencing her. The recipe below is my own, but again there is overlap and she posted before me, so she deserves the credit. Also, I am using her photo of the soup, as I have not made it recently.

Day 1

• For this soup I do not roast but soak 2# uncooked oxtails in cold water for ~1 hour.
  • Handle bones by rubbing them a bit while in the water to get stuff, or impurities, off the flesh and bone.
• Then after the hour, I throw out the soaking water, and place the bones in a large, heavy bottom soup pot along with 12C filtered water.
• My goal is to have a clear, but smoky looking broth, featuring only the flavors I add.
• Bring the pot to a boil and then turn down to a simmer for ~ 3 hours, adding more water if needed.
• During this cooking time, check and skim off any bubbly impurities that rise to the top and toss.
• At the 3 hour mark, remove the pot from the heat and allow it to cool.
• Remove the oxtails from the pot and place into a bowl.
• Cover the broth pot, and the bowled meat, and place in the fridge overnight.

Day 2

The next morning, you should see solidified fat floating on the broth, and that needs to be scooped and tossed; or use the fat as suet for the birds (see below).

• Bring the soup pot full of broth back to a boil, add the oxtails back in, along with 1 sliced, mouth-sized daikon radish.
• Season the soup with salt, pepper and 3 minced garlic cloves.
• Lower to a simmer and cook ~20-30 minutes.
• Taste and season again if needed.
• The broth should be a bit milky looking.
• When ready to serve, garnish with sliced scallions (green and white parts) and serve with steamed white rice and kimchi.

Bird Suet

Uses for beef fat skimmed from these meals are limited, you can give it to your pets or make your own bird suet.

• 1C of suet (solidified oxtail fat).
• 1C of peanut butter.
• Melted together in a pan, over low heat.
• Mix in 1/2C of rough cornmeal and 1/4C of flat oats.
• Add in 1/4C of items like birdseed, nuts or berries.
• Freeze in muffin tins or small containers until you’re ready to use it.

—Patty

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