ox tails: Tips & Techniques

[Jim Wills]

I, too, began using oxtail just for stock. Then I ran into a recipe in Julia Child's The Way to Cook for oxtail dumplings, p. 18. They are a very fine addition to her vegetable soup, and they freeze very well.

Might be a good way to use up leftovers from oxtail stew.

Jim

[andrewB]

I bought one whole tail this weekend (which the butcher cut into 2" pieces for me) and it weighed about 3 pounds.  The resulting cooked dish (a braise in wine with veg) could feed 4 easily - after serving the two of us, plus seconds for my DH, we still have enough left over for another meal.

So if your recipe requires two tails, you're looking at anywhere from 5-7 lbs. worth.  Mind you much of it is bone, especially towards the tail's end.

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we do an oxtail and foie gras ravioli with black truffle emulsion at the restaurant now and i can tell you 1.6kg of precooked tail results in about 600g of braised meat, cleaned from the bone with sinew and cartiledge discarded...

[gsquared]

Oxtail freezes well. Make double the quantity required and then freeze portions in the red wine sauce. 'Tis a thing of joy to discover the frozen oxtail a few weeks later when you wonder what to cook.