Back then, a sale on oxtails was enough to make my little heart sing. It truly was my favorite kind of deal. My mom prepared the Caribbean staple first by baking them in the oven to render the fat, followed by braising them, and then stewing them in a Dutch oven. The result was fall-off-the-bone perfection that she would serve with rice and peas and a side of fried plantains.
In those days, a “sale” price on oxtail was roughly $2 a pound. Fast-forward 30 years to this week’s ShopRite circular, and consumers are now paying $14 a pound for the same exact cut of meat. Always considered a delicacy in my Antiguan-American home, the country has now caught on to this exquisite dish made popular by Caribbean chefs.
“When Caribbean folks started to make oxtails—like with everything, they just turned it into an art form,” says American culinary historian Adrian Miller. “I don’t know what inspired it, but I’m deeply appreciative of it all.”
Miller says the onetime celebration food can be found around the world, but Caribbean cultures have elevated this dish over the centuries. It’s progressed from being the flavoring meat for dishes like Pepper Pot, the national dish in both Guyana and Antigua (but we pair ours with fungee), to a now-viral grilled cheese sandwich made popular by Chef Shorne Benjamin, a James Beard Award-winning chef and owner of Brooklyn, New York’s Fat Fowl.
