Ox Tail Soup

This is an old soup that was much more common than it is today.

Oxtail Soup.—Take two oxtails; cut them into joints, and cut each joint into four pieces; put them into a pan with two ounces of butter, and fry them for ten minutes. Slice two onions, one turnip, two carrots, and a dozen outer stalks of celery, and fry in the same butter, with three slices of bacon cut up fine; fry to a light brown. Turn the ingredients into a saucepan with a quart of stock or ham water, and boil quickly for half an hour, then add two more quarts of stock, a bouquet of herbs, two bay-leaves, a dozen whole peppers crushed, a few cloves, and salt to taste. Simmer until the meat is quite tender; then take it out; strain the soup; skim off the fat, and thicken with two ounces of flour. Return the meat to the soup; add a tablespoonful of Worcestershire, and a cupful of sherry, and serve with grated rusks.
Source: Fifty Soups ©1884

Ox-tail Soup.—Ox-tail soup is made from ox-tail soup stock, as its name indicates. Ox tail soup stock is made as described for beef soup stock, except that ox tail is used instead of beef, and when boiled down to a proper consistency is drawn off into a copper kettle, where pieces of ox tail, vegetables, and seasoning are added, and the whole brought to the boiling point. Ox-tail soup in which is found pieces of bone perfectly bare, or meat in shreds or covered with white specks, is not desirable, because the ox tail from which the soup stock was made was not fresh, or because it was not made from oxtail soup stock but from beef soup stock, and that the added pieces of ox tail were cooked to pieces in order to give the soup a more decided ox-tail flavor.
Source: Handbook of Subsistence Stores ©1896

Ox-Tail Soup, No. 1.—Cut one ox-tail into joints, and fry brown in good drippings; slice four onions and two carrots, and fry in the same when you have taken the pieces of ox-tail out. When done tie them with parsley and thyme in a mosquito net bag and drop into the soup kettle. Put in the ox-tail and three pounds of lean beef. Grate over the meat two carrots; pour four quarts of water over the meat, and boil slowly for five hours. Strain and season, thicken with brown flour wet with water, boil awhile longer and pour up. Pick out the small joints of the oxtail; put in the tureen, and serve one or two on each plate.
Ox-Tail Soup, No. 2.—Wash well and wipe with a cloth a fresh ox-tail; cut into pieces an inch long, dividing the thick part; boil for twenty minutes; drain off all the water; then put them in a soup kettle with three carrots, three bunches of celery, one onion, and a little parsley, a blade of mace, two teaspoonf uls of salt, some pepper, and one quart of clear stock; boil and carefully remove all scum as it rises; then let it simmer until the meat is done; lift out the pieces of ox-tail; strain the soup, and if it is not clear and bright, it can be clarified by using the whites of two eggs beaten to a froth; cut three carrots and two turnips into any small, fancy shapes you may wish, trying to get them the same size; put them in a saucepan and pour the clear stock over them; simmer until the vegetables are tender; heat the pieces of ox-tail, pour hot soup upon them, and serve as hot as you can.
Ox-Tail Soup, No. 3.—Cut a well-dressed ox-tail into several pieces; add two pounds of lean veal, four carrots, three onions and thyme. Fry the ox-tail in butter until brown, remove from fryingpan and put in two carrots and the sliced onion, and brown also. When these are done, tie in a bag with a bunch of thyme and drop in the soup kettle. Lay the pieces of ox-tail in, and cut the meat in small pieces; grate over them two whole carrots, and add four quarts of water with pepper and salt. Boil six hours slowly; strain a little while before serving and thicken with two tablespoonfuls of flour. Boil ten minutes longer and serve immediately.
Source: Housekeepers' and Mothers' Manual ©1895

Ox-Tail Soup.
It is made of the same stock as the above. Take two ox tails and parboil; be sure to notch them with a knife at the joints before you put them in the water to boil; when tender take them out, and strain the water through a sieve. When the soup is to be served, joint them and put them in; let them boil ten minutes, and season according to taste.
To make Ox-Tail Soup another way.
Take two pounds of the fleshy part of an ox hough, and two ox tails notched at the joints, and put them on in a pan, cover with water, add one tea-cupful of whole rice, and a little salt, skim carefully as it comes to the boil, and let it boil slowly for two hours, then take out the tails, let it boil one hour longer, taking care that it be not too much reduced. Strain through a hair sieve, skim and return to the pan, cut the tails quite through where they have been notched, dividing some of the larger pieces, add to the stock, boil slowly for half an hour, and season to taste.
Source: The Practice of Cookery and Pastry ©1862

Ox-TAIL SouP.—Two ox-tails, if properly stewed, with a couple of pounds of gravy beef and a bone of ham, will make an excellent soup. Cut the tails into joints, and boil very gently for several hours in a sufficient quantity of water, with the beef and ham, carrots, turnips, and celery, two or three onions, a piece of crust of bread, a bunch of sweet herbs, a clove or two, and some peppercorns Take out the tails when tender, and let the beef.
boil four hours longer, then strain the liquor and remove the fat in the same manner as for clear gravy soup. If made without ham-bones, or other flavoring ingredients, it will require the addition of a little ketchup, or some of the prepared sauces, and a glass of wine, with a moderate quantity of cayenne. Add the tails and some pieces of carrot and turnip cut into fancy shapes.
When thickened ox-tail soup is preferred, proceed in the same manner as above, and thicken the broth with brown roux.
Source: Mrs Ellis's Complete Cook ©1870