Queue de Bœuf à la Cavour

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 5 to 6-quart cocotte with a tight-fitting lid
• •Wide saucepan for reducing the braising liquor
• •Fine-mesh sieve
• •Fat separator or shallow skimming spoon
• •2-cup straight-sided timbale mold or heatproof bowl

Instructions

1. 1

   Brown the oxtail

   Heat the oven to 285°F (140°C). Check the cut faces of the oxtail for loose bone fragments, pat every section thoroughly dry, and season with half the salt and all the pepper. Heat the clarified butter in a heavy 5 to 6-quart cocotte over medium-high heat. Brown the oxtail in two or three uncrowded batches, turning until every meaty face is deep bronze, about 20 to 25 minutes in all. Set the browned sections aside. Keep the fond on the pot floor dark brown, never black; if one patch burns, wipe out that patch before continuing because bitterness only grows during a long braise.

   Dry meat browns; wet meat steams in its own surface water. Give the oxtail room, even if that means one extra batch.
2. 2

   Add the moistening

   Return the oxtail to the cocotte and pour in the 4 cups of brown beef stock and 2 cups of white wine, preserving the entry's exact two-to-one proportion. Scrape the fond from the pot floor as the liquid warms. The moistening should be abundant, reaching roughly three-quarters of the way up the sections; if a very wide pot leaves them too exposed, move everything to a narrower cocotte rather than changing the ratio. Bring the liquid only to a bare simmer, then cover tightly.

3. 3

   Braise very gently

   Set the covered cocotte in the oven and braise for 4½ to 5 hours, turning the upper sections once midway through. The liquid should barely tremble. Test a thick section with a skewer: it is ready when the skewer enters without resistance and the meat begins to draw away from the bone at a touch. If it remains tight after 5 hours, give it another 20 to 30 minutes. Tough oxtail is undercooked, not ruined. Ça se rattrape.

   Do not let the braising liquor boil hard. Fierce bubbling tightens the meat, clouds the stock, and knocks the tender sections apart before they reach the table.
4. 4

   Cook the mushrooms

   While the oxtail finishes, melt the 2 tablespoons of butter in a wide skillet over medium-high heat. Add the whole mushrooms in one layer and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, tossing only occasionally, until lightly browned and their released water has evaporated. Season with a small pinch of the reserved salt and set aside. The entry calls for cooked mushrooms before they join the sauce, so do not drop them raw into the braising liquor.

5. 5

   Degrease and reduce

   Lift the tender oxtail out carefully with a slotted spoon and keep the sections intact. Strain the cooking liquor through a fine sieve into a bowl, let it stand for 5 minutes, then remove every visible pool of fat with a spoon or fat separator. Arrange the oxtail and mushrooms in the wiped cocotte. Pour the degreased liquor into a broad saucepan and boil steadily until reduced to about 3 cups (720 ml), glossy and concentrated enough to taste like the finished dish. Do not season yet. If the liquor looks oily as it reduces, stop the boil. Ça se rattrape: let it settle, skim it again, then continue. Fat does not reduce away.

6. 6

   Bind the liquor

   Stir the fécule into the cold water until completely smooth. Bring the reduced liquor to a simmer and whisk in the slurry a little at a time; you may not need every drop. Simmer for 30 seconds, stopping when the sauce lightly coats a spoon but still pours freely. If it tightens too far, loosen it with a spoonful of warm stock or water. If small lumps appear, strain it again. Taste now and add only as much of the remaining salt as the reduction needs.

7. 7

   Finish in the cocotte

   Strain the lightly thickened liquor over the oxtail and mushrooms in the cocotte, following the original sequence. Set the cocotte over low heat and let everything bubble with the gentlest motion for 10 minutes, basting the exposed meat once or twice. Do not stir vigorously because the meat is ready to leave its bones. The finished sauce should bathe the sections generously, not hold them in a stiff glaze.

8. 8

   Mold the chestnuts

   While the cocotte completes its final 10 minutes, warm the chestnut purée in a small saucepan over low heat with most of the 3 tablespoons of butter. Beat it smooth with a wooden spoon, adding hot water one spoonful at a time only if it is too stiff to spread. It must remain firm enough to hold its shape. Butter a 2-cup timbale mold, a straight-sided heatproof bowl, pack in the hot purée firmly, and invert it onto a warmed plate. If the purée slumps, return it to the saucepan and cook gently until the excess moisture leaves. Bring the cocotte and chestnut timbale to the table together. À table!

Chef Tips

• •Ask for oxtail cut through the natural joints into substantial sections. A mixture of thick and medium pieces gives the sauce plenty of gelatin while leaving four diners enough meat; a bag made mostly of narrow tail tips is bone without generosity.
• •The stock matters because the recipe carries no aromatic camouflage. Use unsalted brown beef stock with enough body to gel when cold. A salty carton becomes punishing after reduction, while an unsalted stock leaves the seasoning in your hands.
• •Choose a dry, restrained white wine with sound acidity. The wine supplies lift against the rich tail and chestnuts, but a heavily perfumed or sweet bottle pulls the sauce away from its classical balance.
• •Buy unsweetened chestnut purée, never sweetened crème de marrons. Read the label carefully. Chestnut, water, and a little salt are welcome; sugar and vanilla belong elsewhere.
• •Reduction is measured by taste and texture before volume. The liquor should become concentrated and glossy while remaining abundant enough to surround the oxtail. Add the fécule only after that flavor is fully present.

Advance Preparation

• •For the calmest dinner party service, braise the oxtail through Step 3 up to two days ahead. Cool it in its liquor, refrigerate promptly, then lift away the solid fat before removing the meat and reducing the liquor. This gives cleaner degreasing than any amount of hurried skimming.
• •The mushrooms can be browned one day ahead and chilled separately. Add them only for the final 10-minute simmer so they keep their shape and taste of mushrooms rather than spent stock.
• •Reheat the completed braise gently, covered, until the sauce bubbles throughout. Warm and mold the chestnut purée shortly before serving; if it tightens while waiting, beat in a spoonful of hot water.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 500g)