American Plate - Bite #24: Oxtail Stew

Monday, April 15, 2024 0 comments

When you think about the days of yore (at least the American ones), you tend to picture horses and donkeys being the main drivers of farm work; the colloquial term is "workhorse" for a reason. However, in colonial America, the real beasts of burden were oxen. They were far more inexpensive than owning and caring for horses, and bonus, when the animal reached the end of its use in the field, it headed for the kitchen.

Ox meat can be very tough, but early cooks discovered that simmering the tail released the meat from the bones effectively, and it made for a hearty, cost-effective stew. Nowadays, oxtail stew is a perennial favorite in soul food cuisine, becoming an important milestone in the African American experience. After all, let's not kid ourselves about who was being tasked with the cooking in the southern colonies.


For most of the Bites in this project, I either eat/drink them in a restaurant, or prepare them myself. This was a fun exception, as I was hanging out with some friends of mine, and was invited to dinner at their place, where oxtail stew was already simmering on the stove. It was served over a heaping mound of polenta, and was delicious. It's certainly not hard to understand why this dish has endured for hundreds of years.

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American Cake - Cake #34: Cold Oven Pound Cake

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Time Period: 1917 - 1945

Modern Americans are used to preheating their ovens before baking anything, but it wasn't also so. It used to be common wisdom to not turn on gas ovens until you were ready to start baking, not only because it was cheaper to use less gas, but because people thought putting a cake into an already-hot oven would adversely affect the texture and the rise. 

Obviously, attitudes shifted, as this recipe is now one of a grand total of two that I've used a cold oven for. This cake starts at zero, and once the oven is lit, is increased in temperature partway through the process. Doing this preserves the moist center while providing a nice crust on the exterior.


One thing I've noticed along the way with this project is the challenge of getting cakes out of a tube pan (however nice it is) without the exterior looking raggedy. Am I over-buttering? Under-buttering? Not letting it rest long enough once out of the oven? Resting it for too long? How on Earth does one get a smooth exterior out of these things?

That said, I made this one for a friend's birthday, and was heartened by his reaction. Despite its...humble appearance, there were no complaints, flavor-wise. I'm not sure if this'll be a repeat recipe or not, but it was definitely a solid dessert (in more ways than one).

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