What Are You Going To Do With Oxtails? (Onion Oxtail Soup)

When I walked into my local butcher and asked for oxtails the new guy blinked, this is not the most common request (his boss had tell him which freezer they were tucked in). When I was checking out the question I got was "What are you going to do with oxtails?" Answer, turn them into soup.

Oxtails

The soup though, is a Project. You pull out a mandolin (not this kind of mandolin) and slice several pounds of onions super thin. Then you try to squeeze as much liquid as possible out them after macerating them in salt.

This kind of mandolin.

Eventually, you stick the soup in the oven. According to the recipe, it should take 3-4 hours to get the meat to come easily off the bone. I finally got it off the bone after 5 hours, the last 1/2 hour of which I'd upped the heat on the oven to try and speed it up (if I ever cook oxtails again, I'm looking for pressure cooker versions).

Dinner, later than planned.

Then I made the Groovy Gruyere Sticks to go with it.  Not as pretty as in the book, but tasty nonetheless.

The soup is really rich and fatty, even without the Gruyere sticks. It's decent enough, but I can do better stews for less effort.

Difficulty Level: Complex
Will It Get Made Again? No, the work to reward ratios do not come out in its favor.