Oxtail in Guinness

I haven’t cooked this in a while, hence the picture of an ox.

The three girls I lived with in Glasgow looked on in disgust at what I was doing. Not only was I eating the tail of a cow, but with my bare hands I was furiously gnawing, gnashing and sucking at its bones, savoring every last morsel of fat, meat and marrow I could extricate from it. All without the slightest sign of self consciousness or shame.

I was not then, and nor have I ever been, embarrassed about doing this. This is because there is just something so absolutely special and unique about the fat and the marrow on the tail of a cow. Yes other fatty stewing parts of the cow, such as the belly or the flank, are similar and also good, but the tail is just on a level above and beyond any of these. The only way I can describe it is that it is almost like a concentrated version of all the positives of the others parts that perhaps only the feet can come close to.

So yes, at the end of every meal you must make sure you are able to dislodge and consume every bit of flesh, marrow and fat from the bone. The more dexterous your tongue, the better and higher will be your rewards..

In the past one of the reasons I would cook this a lot is because it is relatively easy and also terribly cheap. Though, that being said, I haven’t lived in the UK for over 6 years, and I suspect it is no longer as cheap as it once was. I know that here in Belgium it is not massively different from buying stewing meat, from a cost perspective, which is actually quite expensive. Though I have to say it is substantially better than normal stewing meat, as the flavor is considerably more dynamic and it just has a much greater depth, which I assume comes from the marrow.

My mum used to cook a really simple version of this. When she cooked it she basically just used to do just a few things. The first would be to cover the sections of the tail in seasoned flour and then fry them all on each side in a pan to give them a rich brown crust. Secondly she would put them back in the pan (Which has to be one with a heavy lid that can be placed in the oven). She would then cover the meat with Guinness (or some other dark beer, or even wine) and some beef stock and leave in the oven over night or all day until she was hungry. She would also put some herbs in, sometimes, such as bay leaves or thyme, but often just the meat to give it a clean, pure, savory and meaty flavor.

To explain fully how she cooked it, I first have to come out as being a bit of a middle class countryside twat (if you didn’t already know) by admitting that we had an AGA. This meant she could put it in the bottom oven (they have two ovens each at different temperatures) and leave it overnight or even often even longer.

It was in many ways the ideal dish for her lifestyle, which was incredibly busy. We lived on a farm and so she would be very busy during the day with labouring away outside. In addition she also had several jobs on top of that, including shelf-stacking at Morison’s during some nights, mobile elderly care and also child minding, though not all at the same time. This recipe, therefore, was a godsend, as it is one of those bung it in the oven and forget about sort of things until you are hungry.

I however, do not have an AGA. I don’t even have a proper oven, so I do things somewhat differently.

Ingredients.

• 1 packet of oxtails. It isn’t particularly important how many as the amount per packet is pretty standard. Also there is no problem at all with buying too much. So even buy 2
• 1 can of Guinness
• 1 brown onion chopped finely
• 1 stick of celery chopped finely
• 4 cloves of garlic minced finely
• 1 small/medium carrot chopped finely
• 1 bay leaf
• Soy sauce (1tbsp)
• Salt/Pepper
• Flour
• Optional - white beans. This isn’t necessary if you don’t want to, but I like the extra bulk. It makes it a meal in itself and no need to cook any potatoes
• Optional - smoked lardons/bacon/anchovies to give it an extra depth of salt or event smoke
• Optional - tin of tomatoes or tomato puree. I go back and forth on whether I add this. The extra sweetness is nice, but sometimes I don’t want to dilute the oxtail flavor and so I leave it up to you to decide what you want to do so

Method

1. Place a deep pan with a heavy lid, which can also go into the oven later, on to a hob at a medium to high heat and put some oil in to get hot.
2. Cover the outside of the oxtail pieces with flour, salt and pepper and then place the pieces into the hot oil.
3. Once all sides of the pieces of Oxtail have browned, remove them to a plate on the side.
4. If the bottom of the pan has too many bits stuck on it that may burn if you continue to cook anything else in the pan, put it to one side. Do not wash it, however, as you will need it later for the oven. If you can still cook in it, do so as it saves on washing up.
5. Place the optional bacon, lardons or anchovies in the pan to cook in the leftover fat from the ox tail at a medium heat. If there wasn’t enough oil left, do add some more.
6. Once they have cooked (dissolved in the case of the anchovies or gone brown in the case of the bacon/lardons), add the onions and cook until they go soft and brown.
7. Now add the finely chopped celery and carrots and continue to stir for a few more minutes.
8. Add the garlic now, but do not let it go brown. Just warm it through. When you think it may soon go brown, add the can of Guinness. If you are using tinned tomatoes or tomato puree also add it now. If you swapped pans, save some to de-glaze the other pan also so you do not lose any meat flavours. You will also need to add all of these ingredients to that other pan too.
9. Add everything which has been cooking to the pan which will go in the oven, including the ox tail pieces. At this point add the bay leaf, salt, pepper and soy sauce to taste.
10. Place the heavy lid on the pan and put it in the oven on a low heat. You can leave it for as long as you want, but I would suggest nothing less than three hours. The meat will be soft after 1.5 hours if you cannot wait, but by 2–3 hours, or even longer, the bone marrow and fat will have broken down and you will have a considerably richer sauce with a lot more depth.
11. You can then eat this in bowls as soup, or with mashed or roast potatoes. The meat will be falling off the bones. You can take it all off before serving, or just put the tailed pieces into the bowl. I often add a can of white beans (I prefer butter beans here) 30 minutes before eating.

So that is the recipe. It’s long, but not particularly complicated and gives one of the richest flours of meat I can think of.

Let me know if you try it. I also often cook this with red wine, which is just as good. But dark beer gives it a lovely earthiness which is good here. Fresh thyme can also be added, which is really good.

Don’t forget to chew on the tail bones. It is worth it. Whatever your company think.

Enjoy

Sam