Spanish · Andalusia · main

Rabo de Toro al Vino de Montilla

Rabo de Toro al Vino de Montilla reads umami 8.5, richness 8.2 and salinity 4.5 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Spanish · Andalusia main, about 4 hr 26 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

• Umami & Savory — 8.9 / 10
• Sweet & Fruity — 4.3 / 10
• Sour & Bright — 2.2 / 10
• Bitter & Earthy — 3.0 / 10
• Rich & Fat — 8.7 / 10
• Aromatic & Spice — 3.8 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Umami 8.5 · Richness 8.2 · Salinity 4.5 · Sweetness 3.7 · Allium 3.3 · Warm Spice 2.5 · Smoke 2.4 · Earthy 2.2 · Sourness 2.0 · Fruity 1.9 · Nutty 1.7 · Floral 1.5 · Bitterness 1.4 · Herbaceous 1.1 · Citrus 0.8 · Heat 0.8

What's in it (17)

• oxtail — 2000 g
• onions — 500 g
• carrots — 200 g
• leek — 120 g
• garlic — 25 g
• tomatoes — 400 g
• red wine from montilla-moriles — 500 g
• dry sherry — 200 g
• all-purpose flour — 60 g
• olive oil — 110 g
• beef stock — 1000 g
• bay leaf — 1 g
• black peppercorns — 3 g
• clove — 3 g
• spanish smoked paprika — 3 g
• salt — 12 g
• potatoes — 600 g

Time & effort: about 4 hr 26 min (4 hr 25 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 115.7 kcal, 10.8 g protein, 6.4 g fat, 3.4 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (7 steps)

1. Córdoba's bar dish, and traditionally made from the tail of a bull killed in the ring — which is why it appears on menus during feria. Ordinary oxtail is what you will buy, and it is the same cut. Ask the butcher to saw it at the joints, and choose the thick end pieces.
2. Pat the oxtail very dry and dust it all over with the flour, tapping off the excess. Heat the oil in a heavy casserole and brown the pieces hard in two or three batches over high heat, 12 minutes in all, until they are properly dark on every face. This is where the colour of the finished sauce comes from and it cannot be recovered later.
3. Lift the meat out. Lower the heat and cook the onion, carrot and leek in the same fat for 25 minutes until soft and browning at the edges. Add the garlic for 2 minutes, then the grated tomato and cook 15 minutes until it darkens and thickens.
4. Off the heat stir in the pimentón, then add the red wine and the oloroso and boil hard for 5 minutes to drive off the alcohol. The oloroso is the Andalusian part of this dish — a dry, walnutty oxidised sherry that gives the sauce its slightly bitter, nutty edge. Do not substitute cream sherry, which is sweetened.
5. Return the oxtail, add the stock, bay, peppercorns and clove, and bring to a bare simmer. Cover and cook 3 hours on the lowest heat or in a 150C oven, turning the pieces every hour. It is done when the meat retreats from the bone and a fork goes in with no resistance at all.
6. Lift the meat out, strain the sauce through a sieve pressing the vegetables hard, then boil it down for 15 minutes until it coats a spoon. Season with salt. Meanwhile fry the potato batons in hot oil for 6 minutes until gold. Return the oxtail to the sauce to warm and serve with the potatoes underneath — this dish is always better on the second day.
7. Substitutions: another warm-climate red can stand in for the red wine from Montilla-Moriles.

Dishes with a similar flavor shape

• Locro — Argentine
• Bandeja Paisa — Colombian
• Lasagna Bolognese — Italian-American
• Cassoulet — French
• Escudella i Carn d'Olla — Spanish · Catalonia

Keep reading: what umami, richness, salinity mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.