Victorian Oxtail Soup, Adapted for a Pressure Cooker

Buy a mixture of joints

Oxtail is the tail of cattle, sold in sections with a bone through the center. Pieces from the wider end carry more meat; narrow pieces contribute relatively little meat for their weight. Ask for a mixture with some substantial joints, especially when the soup is intended to feed four people.

It also brings connective tissue and fat. Long moist cooking softens the meat and gives the broth body. That helps explain the old recipe's patient simmer and why this cut suits pressure cooking. A packet of lean diced beef would make a different soup, even if it happened to cost less.

Size matters more than a tidy count of pieces. Very thick joints can need another cooking interval after smaller ones have softened. Look for meat that yields readily at the bone. If a piece still resists, it needs more tenderizing, not a more forceful knife at the table.

Brown first, finish later

Beeton begins with butter, vegetables and a little water over a sharp fire to draw out their juices. Dry browning is an addition here, along with a smaller, weight-based batch and unsalted stock suited to a closed cooker. It supplies a browned-meat flavor before the pressure stage begins.

Give the oxtail space in the hot pot and work in batches. The brown material left on the base belongs in the broth once it's loosened with stock. Burned material doesn't; don't carry a bitter patch into the whole batch for the sake of color.

A closed pot also loses much less liquid than an uncovered pan. Pressure cooking can tenderize the meat while leaving a broth that still needs concentration. Tasting after straining tells you whether to reduce it. Adding flour immediately would thicken a weak broth without fixing its flavor.

Ketchup meant more than tomatoes

The soup recipe says ketchup without specifying its kind. Elsewhere in the same book, Beeton gives recipes for mushroom and walnut ketchups. Mushroom ketchup is the choice here: a dark savory seasoning, quite different from the sweet tomato condiment most people reach for today.

Check the bottle before pouring. Mushroom ketchup can be salty, and the soup already includes ham. Unsalted stock leaves room for both. Season the finished broth after the ketchup has gone in, so an early pinch of salt doesn't become an excess once the liquid reduces.

Port belongs near the end. Its wine flavor meets the browned meat and savory broth without spending the entire pressure stage in the pot. A short final simmer brings the ingredients together while leaving the seasoning open to one last taste.

A light body, not a heavy gravy

Flour is Beeton's finishing thickener, but she doesn't give an amount. Here a modest measured addition gives the soup a little body while leaving it fluid enough to eat with a spoon. Whisking it first with cold water helps it disperse evenly into the hot broth.

Skim the fat before thickening. If you're making the soup ahead, chilling the strained broth makes that easier: the fat firms on the surface and can be lifted off. Return the oxtail for serving and divide the larger, meatier joints fairly among the bowls.