Oxtail soup.

[Onlyme]

Reminds me of my childhood, Heinz Oxtail Soup.
Anyway, I know a place that sells it, so there!
Onlyme.

[caller]

So thats what happened to all the tins they can't flog in the UK!

[margaretcarnes]

Shame on you Onlyme! Try making your own. Oxtails from t'market - give 'em a good old stewing in't rice cooker. Sling in stock cubes, onion etc and maybe thicken with cornflour. Cheap cheap

[Jaime]

Mmm-mm-mm

Nothing like a piece of braised spinal chord. BSE-tastic!!

[VincentD]

Hi Maggs, a rice cooker won't cook properly once it goes on the 'keep-warm' cycle. You'll either want a slow cooker, or (if you're impatient like me) do the oxtail seperately in a pressure cooker, then combine with the rest of the veggies and stuff in the slow cooker with the setting on high/ auto. Great results.

We had a Thai caterer in our canteen once who would do this once a week, Thai style. She would add lemongrass, tomatoes and Chinese parsley to the mix. It was a must-have on the menu, and I was saddened when the new caterers took over.

[Spitfire]

Did you bribe JD to get it for you on the quiet?

[PeteC]

Perhaps it will be Cow or water Buffalo tail instead of real Ox tail? Has anyone seen any oxen wandering around anywhere?..and no, it's not because they're all in the soup! Pete

[margaretcarnes]

Good point Pete - still taste good though, with or without the BSE!
Vincent - I must have had a faulty rice cooker - always managed to get stews cooked in it. Did browse some slow cookers in Robinsons once but they were quite scarce and pricey a while back. Maybe more available now. Anyway some good ideas there guys for Onlyme

[PeteC]

Good point Pete - still taste good though, with or without the BSE!
Vincent - I must have had a faulty rice cooker - always managed to get stews cooked in it. Did browse some slow cookers in Robinsons once but they were quite scarce and pricey a while back. Maybe more available now. Anyway some good ideas there guys for Onlyme

That's a good point. Does the tail count as part of the spinal system, therefore dangerous concerning mad cow? Pete

[margaretcarnes]

Tail part of spinal system Pete - I honestly don't know, but can find out from an environmental health chum.
I know we don't see oxtails now in the UK - at least not in the run of the mill butchers. Neither do we see beef on the bone, or with huge wadges of fat attached. Even sirloin steaks are sold with the fat trimmed to within an inch of their lives, which I find totally unecessary and a 'Nanny State' mentality.
Some restaurants do still manage to serve T bone steaks. Gawd knows where they get them from.
Then again customers tastes might have changed with regard to the beef fat thing. Personally I think beef cooks better with a good bit of lardy fat attached, but my butcher says that people object to paying for the fatty bits.

[Spitfire]

Think you're right Mags about peoples change in tastes concerning the beef and fat thing, a lot of people want it as lean as possible now. As you semi-pointed out, we're made to feel bad about all the trimmings and so-on by the lost-it/PC/we know best bunch.

You do need a bit of fat to make it taste better IMO also, but I like those steaks that have the small flecks of fat running all the way through them as they seem to cook and taste better.

[margaretcarnes]

You're right Spitfire, the 'marbling' of fat through most cuts of beef helps it to cook better and adds to the flavour. Fillet steak is maybe one exception (dream on!) Also cooking on the bone is supposed to be more tasty.
As for the PC brigade though - I think it's really more a fear of beef in general following the BSE scare. I know 2 people who haven't touched beef at all since BSE (which is quite worrying as one of them is the environmental 'elf I mentioned earlier!)
But we went through this before with 'dodgy' eggs, and I've continued to eat sloppy yolks regardless, where a lot of people still insist on solids.
I do think that all this avoidance of certain foods, for no current justified reasons, can only lead to even more reduced tolerance to bugs in general.

Eat and be damned!

[richard]

One of my favourite dishes here is brisket. If cooked properly it is the most delicious beef dish and has the right amount of fat ingrained to make the beef moist, tender and tasty. Goes great with boiled potatoes, carrots, onions and a thin gravy

[Big Boy]

margaretcarnes wrote

I know we don't see oxtails now in the UK

Maybe not in Yorkshire, but do you have electricity up there either? The UK does stretch further than the borders of Yorkshire.

They are freely on sale down South, and Mrs BB regularly buys them from our local Morrisons - quite expensive IMHO for a bit of bone and grizzle.

[Jaime]

Plenty available in Wales too. I agree with BB on the price for a bit of bone & gristle.

Going back to the spinal chord thing, oxtail & T-bone steaks were removed from sale during the BSE crisis as they were apparently high risk cuts because of the spinal chord.

Those restrictions have been lifted for quite a while now - (at least 2 or 3 years, maybe more) - and you can get both in supermarkets and butchers now.

BTW, Fat Means Flavour!