Initially, oxtail was known for coming from the tail of an ox. However, now it can come from the tail of a cow of either sex. It is a rich and flavorful cut of beef. Oxtail typically has a tender and often sticky texture. The tail is then skinned and cut into shorter lengths for sale. Each section of the tail will have a tailbone inside with some marrow in the center. A typical oxtail will weigh around 3.5 kilograms which is 8 pounds. The tail of a cow makes up less than 1% of the total meat which is why many viewed it as a waste. Because there's not much to offer and each cow has that 1%, many people thought that no one would bother spending time eating it. So it was sold at a low price and lower-income citizens would purchase it. Oxtails were considered offal, the least desirable part of the cattle. Butchers and plantation owners would choose higher-end cuts in the meats. Another big reason why oxtail was undesirable was that it would take too long to cook and so it was considered a waste. But the poor man found many ways to use the oxtails and turn them into a delicacy. It has become very expensive and almost unaffordable. This stigma that cheap cuts of meat are of poor quality has been perceived back since the 1800s. But the consumption of meat has been around way before that. In fact, our ancestors had omnivorous characteristics. An article titled “A brief history of meat in the human diet and current health implications” further explains this fact. “Anthropological investigations have confirmed many times over, through multiple fields of research, the critical role of consumption of animal source foods (ASF) including meat in the evolution of our species. As early as four million years ago, our early bipedal hominin ancestors were scavenging ASFs as evidenced by cut marks on animal bone remains, stable isotope composition of these hominin remains, and numerous other lines of evidence from physiological and paleo-anthropological domains.” (Mann 2018, 1) Over time, the human race has been experimenting with new animals and foods for consumption. Soon, society became cultivated and started utilizing animals like cows or cattle for their meat. And eventually, they discovered oxtail.

Oxtail doesn’t have a specific origin because so many cultures have shared their interpretation of the cuisine. But that doesn’t mean there is no historical origin of the meal. In Europe, Oxtail was an English comfort dish in the seventeenth century. Oxtail soup is very popular in South America, West Africa, Spain, China, and Indonesia. Another place where Oxtail is extremely popular is in the islands and Jamaica. There are many ways of preparing oxtail. One way Jamaica prepares oxtail is as a stew. Jamaicans would cook it with fresh herbs and dried spices like allspice. They cook it very slowly with a low fire. It takes a minimum of three to four hours. In China, the oxtail staple is soup. The broth of the soup is by stewing the oxtail for three hours. This allows the bone to release all of its flavors from the marrow. Although, both the Chinese and Jamaican recipe requires three hours of cooking time. The Chinese recipe doesn't have spices like Jamaica. The oxtail soup primarily uses salt and a wide variety of vegetables like onions, celery, carrots, and chives. Another example of a culture taking on oxtail is the rabo de toro. Rabo de toro is a classic Spanish oxtail stew commonly found in Southern Spain, in the region of Andalusia. Rabo de toro differs from the others by using spices like bay leaves and fresh thyme. Along with other ingredients like salt, pepper, and flour. The vegetables include yellow onion, garlic, carrots, celery, leek, and red pepper. This dish is served with the oxtail covered in thickened sauce with thick french fries or mashed potatoes and a lot of bread. One more great example is a dish from the Philippines called Kare Kare. This dish is essentially a stew covered in thick peanut sauce with vegetables like green beans and bok choy. Now with all these different methods and ingredients for preparing oxtail, it is evident that oxtail had a massive cultural impact. This is so beautiful because as different as every culture and country is, there are still similarities. At the beginning of oxtail cuisine, it was globally known as a waste or a poor man’s food. So multiple cultures were able to create delicious meals from this “waste” of food and shared their love for oxtail.

Now, let’s look deeper into what oxtail has to offer nutritionally. Just for reference, I would like to show the difference in nutrition between oxtail, pork, and lamb. The serving size for all of these meats will be 100 grams. Oxtail has the most calories at 674. Whereas pork has 242 and lamb has 294 calories. The total fat of oxtail is 71 grams. Pork has 14 grams and lamb has 21 grams.  There are 99 milligrams of cholesterol in oxtail. Pork has 80 milligrams and lamb has 97 milligrams. For sodium, oxtail has 26 milligrams, pork has 62 milligrams, and lamb has 72 milligrams. There are 96 milligrams of potassium in oxtail. Pork has 423 milligrams and lamb has 310 milligrams of potassium. All three of these meats have zero carbohydrates. And finally, oxtail contains 8 grams of protein. Pork has 27 grams and lamb has 25 grams of protein. I know this may seem a little overwhelming with numbers but I included this to show more of the nutritional contents within the foods we eat. Next, let’s talk about the nutritional benefits of oxtail. Oxtail contains a lot of collagen which is a vital protein that helps develop our body's growth and repair. Natural collagen has many benefits for your skin, hair, and nails. It is known to also improve your sleep and adds security to your joints and connective tissue. An increase in collagen strengthens the tissue in your vascular system. However, people who lack collagen seek oral supplementation. An insightful article called “Myths and media in oral collagen supplementation for the skin, nails, and hair: A review” explains how important collagen is. “Collagen is an integral building block in the extracellular matrix in the skin, hair, nails, joints, bones, tendons, and cartilage. As a key component of the structure of the hair, skin, and nails, there is strong consumer interest in the dermatologic efficacy of collagen supplementation.” (Rustad, Nickles, McKenney, Bilimoria, Lio 2022, 1) As you can see, Collagen is very beneficial to human health. If you have no problem eating meat, there’s no need for any supplementation. Just give oxtail a try.

Above, I mentioned that oxtail is high in fat. So, for people with Paleo, Ketogenic, or Carnivore diets, oxtail is an ideal source for energy consumption. Oxtail is an ideal source for anyone on a high-fat low-carb or no-carb diet. Although, in a study related to obesity in children, parents were questioned to see if they can detect their children’s weight status. This association with their knowledge of nutrition and obesity was put to the test. “Many parents in this study made incorrect assumptions that deep-fried chicken, cooking oxtail soup and ‘rendang’ which is beef cooked in thick coconut milk gravy are methods to reduce fat.” (Muhammad, Omar, Shah, Muthupalaniappen, Arshad 2008, 600) The article titled “Parental perception of their children’s weight status, and its association with their nutrition and obesity knowledge” explains that oxtail soup could be dangerous in terms of weight gain.

As I mentioned before, oxtail was known for being a poor man’s food. It later became popular and globally known. What used to be considered a throwaway cut of meat is now one of the most expensive. In the United States a few decades ago, 15 pounds of oxtail would cost around 15 dollars. Today, some stores are selling one pound of oxtail for 18.99 dollars. To put this into greater perspective, typically one pound of Pork loin costs approximately 10.50 dollars. Another cut of meat, Lamb loin chops, cost approximately 12.99 dollars per pound. As oxtail became more of a delicacy and desirable, it grew in demand and popularity around the world. The price of oxtails has become expensive because they account for small portions of the cow. This makes it difficult to supply commercially and meet growing global demands. Each oxtail weighs around six to seven pounds, further limiting market availability. People raise cows to slaughter them and each cow only has one tail. Because a cow has many ribs to offer, the tail becomes rare, therefore the price increases. When the price of a product increases, it limits its availability for lower-income people. That is one major negative economic impact. “The short- and medium-term impacts of rises in staple food prices” is a resource I found that provides context. “Staple food price increases have had very serious effects on the poor in national or local economies which have experienced high food price shocks without broad based growth processes, with poor net buyers of food, in both rural and urban communities, most negatively affected.” (Dorward 2012, 643) It's a shame that this was considered poor food and a lot of people who used to turn to this comfort food can’t access it as easily.

Socially speaking, the most significant impact was the global appreciation for oxtail. More and more people around the world started to recognize the beauty of oxtail. Which allowed new chefs to put their cultural twist on the preparations and reveal new renditions of the cuisine. This is important because it allows new people to try foods they haven’t before. There are predetermined associations between food and people in response to their class. This is derived from the value we place on the associations. An in-class reading titled “The Public Sphere: Eating and Drinking in Public'' explains this topic further. “The “gin-palaces'' of the nineteenth century were the model for large pubs in towns and cities, with the remnant of the one-room alehouse being relegated to small towns and back streets where, in the twentieth century, they would become overwhelmingly the domain of the working-class men. “Public bars” and “saloon bars” segregated working-class drinkers, and many establishments even had dedicated “ladies bars” in which women were expected to drink.” (Colás 2018, 102-03) When we think about the social impacts within the culture of food, we often find ourselves boxing people in. There were “ladies bars” where only women would drink. It’s the same thing with food and class. People’s social values forced them to believe oxtail was a waste. Which led the economic market to believe it was a low-cost product, giving it the title of a poor man’s food.

Our perception of food and what we consider as “food” holds more weight than we think. There are so many cultures out there that eat things that are considered weird for Americans but normal for them. The direct link between the perception or the value we place on food and why we choose to eat it applies to all foods. For example, an in-class reading titled “How then shall we eat? Insect-eating attitudes and sustainable foodways'' further explains this concept. “Negative attitudes toward invertebrates are a deep-seated, visceral response among Western peoples. Insect cuisine is, for Westerners, emblematic of the alien, a threat to our psychological and cultural identity. Yet failure to embrace entomophagy prevents us from seeing the full humanity of those of other classes, races, and cultures, and leads to agricultural and food policy decisions that fail in their objectives to improve nourishment for all people.” (Looy, Dunkel, Wood 2013, 131) Analyzing the physiological barriers consumers have about certain foods gives us a better understanding why people choose not to eat things. Some see “gross” or “low class” foods as a threat to cultural identity. And as weird or gross as it may seem, there are actual benefits to eating certain insects. So how does this relate to my topic? Well, when we believe that one food is deemed important or unimportant, appealing or undesirable, or low class or high class it’s from the masses' perception. This is what happened with oxtail. All because a part of a cow was considered a waste. Everyone who could afford the best parts of the cattle wouldn’t purchase it. Because of the perception created around it that there was no point. However, the narrative changed when the people who could only afford oxtail made it into their own. The unique way each culture prepares its dish created something different the world wasn’t ready for. And now that people have given it a chance, the stock for oxtail went through the roof. It’s a popular cuisine and quite expensive now too. This is a reflection of how creative we can be as cooks. An explanation as to why experimenting and trying new cultural cuisines are important because it allows us to step outside of the box. There are so many different kinds of foods out there that are amazing that we don’t know about. It also allows us to appreciate each other and the care we put into food.