Beef Tail raised without hormones or antibiotics

Oxtail, raised without hormones or antibiotics, in packs of roughly 700 g at $26.34/kg — about $18.44. It is the cheapest route to a gelatinous stock and meat that falls off the bone with a fork, and it asks for nothing but time.

What is oxtail?

Sections of tail, bone in the middle, wrapped in hard-worked meat that is full of collagen. That collagen is the whole point: melted by long slow cooking it gives a stock that sets to jelly when cold and a glossy sauce with no cream or flour. No prime cut does that.

Natural Québec beef

Our cattle are raised without hormones or antibiotics on our family farm in Huntingdon, Montérégie. For a cut you simmer for three hours and whose broth you keep, the farming carries all the way through.

What to make with it

Red wine oxtail stew first — the winter dish. But also soup, a base stock for fondue or ramen, and a filling for pasta or pie: once cooked, the meat shreds itself. One oxtail serves two as a main, four in a soup.

How to cook oxtail

Two words: long and low.

• Brown the pieces on every side in a hot casserole. That step makes the colour and the depth of the sauce; do not skip it.
• Cover with stock, red wine, or both, with onion, carrot, celery, bay and thyme.
• Braise covered, 3 to 4 hours at 160 °C in the oven, or at a bare simmer on the hob, until the meat leaves the bone without resistance.
• Cool, skim, reheat. Make it the day before: it is better, and the fat lifts off in a sheet.

Serving and pairing

Mashed potato, polenta, or bread for the sauce. A full-bodied red stands up to it easily. Any leftover broth freezes in portions and beats any stock you can buy.

Red wine oxtail stew

Flour and brown 1.4 kg of oxtail in a casserole, then set aside. Soften 2 onions, 2 carrots and 2 celery sticks in pieces. Deglaze with 500 ml red wine, reduce by half, return the meat and add 500 ml beef stock, 2 garlic cloves, bay and thyme. Cover and cook at 160 °C for 3½ hours. Cool, skim the fat, reheat gently and serve over mash.

Oxtail price and ordering

• Regular price: $26.34/kg — about $18.44 per pack (estimate on 700 g)
• Weight: packs of roughly 700 g
• Sold by weight: the final price at checkout reflects the actual weight
• Product number: 1110445
• Sold frozen
• No hormones or antibiotics, raised in Huntingdon, Québec
• Where to buy: delivery across Québec and Montréal by refrigerated truck, free from $225. Farm pickup at 62 York Street, Huntingdon.