The Top Tip You Need To Follow When Cooking Oxtail

Smothered, stewed, braised, jerked — however you prepare it, oxtail is delicious. This hefty, bony cut of meat can be intimidating to work with, though, and getting it nice and tender can take skill and time. Though it can be tempting to pass off the task of cooking it properly to the experts, cooking it at home can be rewarding if you know how — and there are a few key tips to ensuring it turns out melty and falls off the bone.

The number one tip to follow when it comes to cooking oxtail is to braise it. Braising oxtail at a low temperature over hours will give you the best results in the end; plus, it's a double-whammy of deliciousness. As the oxtail braises, it cooks down, and the juices and fat render off. Season the stock it's simmering in, making it all the more flavorful. The stock simmers and cooks the tails gently, breaking down the meat until it's softened and ready to eat. When the tails reach 160 degrees Fahrenheit on the inside, that means it's time to dig in.

There's a reason why braising is the ideal cooking method for a cut of meat like oxtail. Oxtail is, quite literally, the tail of a cow; a cow's tail moves around a lot to swat at flies, which means the meat on this appendage can be tough due to frequent use. Not only that, but tough cartilage and large bones mean that the amount of proper meat on this cut is limited. Tenderizing what's there, as well as loosening up that cartilage, is key.

Braised meat incorporates both dry and moist heat; the meat is browned first in a skillet to coax out flavor as a result of the Maillard reaction, then covered in liquid, typically some sort of stock or broth, and cooked gently for an extended period of time. As the meat braises, the collagen inside the cut cooks down and becomes gelatin; as it dissolves, the meat's fibers relax and tenderize. However, if the cooking temperature is too high, these muscle fibers will shrink and seize up, toughening. 

Braising makes for delicious and tender results, but there's no question that it takes time and patience. A good braised oxtail dish can take 3 hours or more to tenderize, and not everyone has the schedule for low-and-slow cooking. If you have the right equipment, though, there's a way to speed this process along. Use a pressure cooker.

Pressure cooking involves mixing a small amount of liquid in with tough meats and placing it in a sealed, pressurized cooking vessel. As the liquid heats and evaporates into steam, the steam is forced to stay in the pot due to the seal, both cooking the food and maintaining a high level of moisture. As a result, cooking tender oxtails in the pressure cooker only takes about 45 minutes. Both of these cooking methods are comparable when it comes to tenderizing that meat; however, braising allows you to have more control over seasoning and temperature variations as the meat cooks. And there's something to be said about the sheer comfort and deliciousness of a dish like braised oxtails that have been simmering all day.