I love this book mostly for the improving quotes that it is so liberally sprinkled with.
Cultivate modesty, meekness, prudence, piety with all its virtuous and charitable occupations, all beautiful and useful accomplishments, suited to your rank and condition. These are the chief ornaments of your sex, and will render you truly lovely as women and as Christians. --Rev. James Fordyce, D.D. (Yes, the same Rev. Fordyce that Mr. Collins keeps trying to read from in Pride and Prejudice.)
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| I have theories on why beautiful soup tureens were so popular. Oxtail joints are not particularly attractive. |
Oxtail Soup.--Make a quantity of brown soup with shin of beef; take 2 or 3 tails and cut them in pieces at the joints; put them into the soup, and stew them till tender, but not till the meat leaves the bones. Add a little [mushroom] ketchup, and serve it with the pieces of tail in the soup.
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| Even less attractive raw! |
Oxtail Soup, Redacted
Beef broth
Mushroom ketchup
Oxtail pieces
Put beef broth, a few tablespoons of mushroom ketchup, and some pieces of oxtail in a pot. Either simmer for a loooooong time, or pressure cook 45 minutes (natural release).
Verdict: Actually... great. Really great. Really, really great. This made the best beef broth I think I've ever had. That mushroom ketchup is really nice when it's diluted. That, along with the flavor from the oxtails, made the broth so fabulous. The oxtail meat was tender, flavorful, and succulent. The kids adored it. They dunked bread in the broth and had a couple bowls each.
The only problem is how to eat the gosh darn things. It's REALLY DIFFICULT to get bites off the things! You probably end up with six or seven bites of meat off the entire thing. So, a great starter soup I guess, but probably don't base a whole meal off this unless you throw in some vegetables.
3 comments:
Oxtail soup is the perfect winter dish as far as I'm concerned (well, one of the perfect dishes, anyway). I love the intensity of flavour but, as I pick of the seriously small amounts of meat, I do wonder sometimes if it's worth it.
Still, if Mr Southgate recommends it who am I to argue. He was also the author of ‘The Way to Woo and Win a Wife’ I believe, so he was clearly an expert on the subject of women. I'd like to read something written by his wife or daughter. I wonder if they shared his views.
Well I hardly think it proper that his wife or daughter be writing for public consumption, like common strumpets/Brontës!
Also, you had best believe I am hunting down that book RIGHT NOW.
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