To answer everyone’s first question about oxtail, it’s not the tail of an ox. According to Wikipedia:
> An ox is nothing more than a mature bovine with an “education”. The education consists of the animal’s learning to respond appropriately to the teamster’s (ox driver’s) commands: in North America such as (1) get up, (2) whoa, (3) back up, (4) gee (turn to the right) and (5) haw (turn to the left).
I wondered why my ox was doing a 180 every time I laughed “haw haw.” (Rimshot.)
Anyway, oxtail is the tail of the same kind of steer that supplies your steaks, roasts, and other beefy parts. It’s also delicious, beefy, and basically foolproof to cook. The only drawback to oxtail is the price. Since each cow only has one tail, and since you and I are not the first to hear about the wonders of oxtail, it’s fairly expensive–I usually see it for $4/pound at my local supermarket. I know $4 doesn’t sound expensive, but it’s mostly bone. To make a big pot of oxtail stew you need like seven pounds. It’s cheaper at Asian and Mexican groceries, where it’s probably USDA Select rather than Choice grade. That’s fine–oxtail has so much fat, you don’t need to pay for a high grade.
If you’re not ready to cart home seven pounds of tail and make it the main event, it makes an awesome meat sauce. That’s what we had last night, over polenta, and we’ll have more tonight with penne rigate. Brown the oxtail, or not, and throw it in a pot with canned tomatoes, onions, garlic, herbs of your choice, and red wine. Braise for three or four hours, until the meat is falling off the bone. You can’t overcook oxtail. Shred the meat, skim the sauce, and recombine them, and there you have it.
Have you noticed how hard it is to talk about oxtail without sounding lewd, gross, or both?
Mmm…or black bean oxtail soup with rice….or oxtail stew….
My only knowledge of oxtails is that they are recommended for use in one of the recipes in the Little House Cookbook (as in Little House on the Prairie). I think they are supposed to stand in for the oxen butchered during the Long Winter when food was scarce. The Ingalls family got like 4 pounds of beef. Ma seared it all over and pot-roasted it and made gravy. They didn’t specify which part of the ox the family actually got, though.
I imagine almost any part of an actual ox would be good for pot-roasting, since the muscle gets such a workout.
If you haven’t tried oxtails, definitely try the meat sauce–you don’t have to tell the family it’s oxtail; they’ll just wonder why it’s so good. (If you have a crock-pot, this would work perfectly in it.) We had more last night over penne, with some slow-cooked broccoli and arugula salad. Iris surprised me by eating the salad.