Oxtail (The Escoffier Culinary Guide)

 

                Apart from its use as a basic element of Ox-tail Soup, oxtail lends itself to the following preparations:

Oxtail Auvergne

      Cut off the tail and braise it in white wine.

      Arrange the sections in a casserole dish with: rectangles of lean boiled bacon; large chestnuts cooked in broth and glazed; small onions cooked in butter; the bottom, degreased, past and reduced.

Cavour Oxtail

      Arrange the tail, cut up, on a base of herbs and bacon rinds, blanched; sweat in the oven for a quarter of an hour. Moisten with a little brown stock; drop to ice; then complete the wetting with two thirds of brown stock and one third of white wine.

      Cook very gently until the flesh comes away from the bones, 3.5 to 4 hours.

      Then remove the sections in a saltire; cover them with the spent cooking stock, degreased and bound with the arrowroot; add a relative amount of small cooked mushrooms and simmer gently for a quarter of an hour.

      Arrange the sections and garnish in a chestnut purée border, tied with the egg yolks and poached in the oven.

Note: A variant of this method consists of placing the tail and garnish in a casserole dish, and serving a chestnut puree on the side.

Charolais Oxtail

     Prepare the tail as above, in the first part.

      Bring the sections together in a sauté pan with: carrots and turnips turned into large olives and cooked in a broth; dumplings of minced pork bound in eggs, with the addition of chopped parsley and a touch of garlic, poached in advance. Cover with cooked tails, strained, degreased, reduced, lightly thickened with Spanish sauce; simmer for 20 minutes.

      Arrange in a border of Duchess apple placed on the serving dish and browned in the oven, placing the sections along the border, inside, and the filling in the middle.

      Surround the border with rectangles of very lean pork belly, cooked separately.

Note: For retail serving, the border may be pocket-laid on the serving platter.

Stuffed oxtail

      Bone the tail without piercing it; Season the inside and fill it with the following stuffing:

      400 grams of very lean beef and 200 grams of chopped fatty bacon; 150 grams of bread crumbs soaked in milk and pressed; 2 whole eggs, 100 grams of truffle peels, 15 grams of salt, a small pinch of pepper and a pinch of spices.

      Sew the tail; wrap it like a galantine and cook it gently for 3 hours, like boiled beef.

      Then, after having unwrapped it, mark it on a background of herbs; moisten with the necessary quantity of its cooking and finish cooking it by gently braising it.

      Finally glaze; pass, reduce the cooking and tie it with the arrowroot.

      The stuffed oxtail is accompanied by all the vegetable toppings, purees and sauces, which are suitable for large pieces of beef.

Grilled oxtail

      Cook it in the pot, after having detailed it in double sections.

      Bread the sections with melted butter, observing that if the accompaniment is to be a spicy sauce, they must be coated with a light cayennée mustard before being breaded. Grill them gently.

      The grilled oxtail can be accompanied at will:

      Any vegetable purée; of a sobise held a little tight; or a sauce: devil, chopped, spicy, robert, tomatoes, etc...

Oxtail in Hochepot

      Score the cooked tail sections with: 2 pig's trotters, each cut into 5 pieces and a whole ear. Wet covered with water: salt at the rate of 10 grams per liter of water; start and skim like a pot; cook gently for 2 hours.

      At the end of this time add: a small headed cabbage, divided into quarters and blanched; 10 small onions, 2 small carrots and 2 small turnips turned into large olives; cook for another 2 hours.

      Arrange the sections in a ring on a hollow dish; arrange the vegetable garnish in the middle; surround with grilled chipolata sausages and pork ear cut into strips.

      Serve a timbale of English potatoes on the side.

Nohant oxtail

      Braise the tail sections as indicated in the "à la Cavour" formula; finally glaze them in the reduced cooking.

      Arrange in a wreath; garnish the middle with a large salad of vegetables in butter; surround with braised and glazed lamb sweetbreads, alternated with slices of scarlet tongue detailed in rounds or ovals.

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