Did You Want An End Cut?

Well this is as far “end” as it gets!

I made this Ox Tail Stew Thursday night and cooked it almost all day Friday. I started off by seasoning four pounds of Ox Tails with coarse ground pepper, and sea salt. These were placed in a hot pan and seared on all sides until they were nice and brown, and placed in my crock-pot. In the same pan I threw a bunch of carrots, onion, and celery, and cooked them up in the residual ox tail grease. When they had a head start I put them in with the ox tails. I sprinkled with some thyme, parsley, a couple of crushed bay leaves, and a quart of beef stock. After cooking all day it was thickened with cornstarch, and warmed up to serve after Bible Study.

This by far was the easiest snack “of questionable taste” to eat. It was as comforting as mom’s meatloaf and as satisfying as dinner at grandma’s house. It tasted very much like a rich beef stew. The richness certainly came from the high fat content, that is characteristic of ox tail, and I had trimmed mine down quite a bit. The texture of the meat was where a squeamish person may have trouble because there were some pieces that were so fatty that they were almost gelatinous. I would make this again on a Saturday night to have after church Sunday afternoon, but next time I will be a little lighter on the sea salt, and I would add some Yukon Gold potato cubes to make it into a meal, and serve it with some crusty Italian bread to sop up the gravy.

If you have a comment or recipe, or story about Ox Tail, please feel free. If you tried my dish please, let me know what you thought.