TBH I’ve only ever had oxtail soup and like it, but it looks like there are far more interesting things to do with it. Such a flavorful cut of meat 
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It’s a staple of the Southern Spanish cuisine, rabo de toro. Really good cut for stews… Here in the Netherlands, at a good butcher, this will set you back around 15-20 euro per kilo.
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I’ve been griping for several years that former throwaway cuts now cost as much as or more than steak. The last time I went shopping, oxtails were $9/lb, and tongue was $10/lb. Just a few feet away in the case, top sirloin was $7/lb.
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Big fan of oxtail here, and grew up on tasty oxtail soup that my mom used to make. My sisters and I used to fight over the best pieces to eat from the soup. While I’ve never cooked it, I enjoy braised oxtail from different restaurants, when I’m in the mood for a rich, hearty beef dish.
I didn’t realize that oxtail wasn’t “popular” - it’s always felt like a fairly approachable cut to me. To me, pork belly, pig tails, and even various pork and beef bones have skyrocketed in price because of more interest in cooking with these, or at least using them in homemade bone broth.
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The carcass has a fixed composition. Demand for skirt steak, for example – fajitas, makes loin cuts less “desirable” . . . so undesirable that people we know use strip steak instead of flank for everyday stir-fried beef dishes.
Depends if you’re “ethnic” or not.
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I get that. As a graduate of Father Guido Sarducci’s Five Minute University, I know the relationship between supply and demand. What grinds my gears is that the demand for oxtails and tongue has gotten so high that steak is a better value. We can’t afford to eat ‘poor’ anymore!
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We’re still looking for the Pope in the pizza.
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He’s in the bathroom, running up quite a tab!
For Knock-their-socks-off oxtail, you can’t do better than this Thomas Keller version.
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The NYT is a few years late - oxtail prices have really gone up 5-6 years ago as more and more people and restaurants were using it. It’s a great cut for many braised dishes. We have to see when people “find” cheeks as a still cheap replacement
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not a particularly new issue.
way back when Emeril actually did educational cooking shows, he featured an ossa bucco (+manyotherspellings) dish. I’d been doing it for years.
the price of veal and beef shanks immediately went through the roof.
and stayed there…
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I don’t really regard any of these types of articles as “breaking news,” TBH 
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No doubt, one of the guys with the red face . . .
I’ve been making oxtail stew for 20+ years. It used to be dirt cheap. Then it was “discovered” and I watched the prices run from $4/lb to 10/lb to 16/lb to whatever they are now in our “fantastic economy”.
Damned yuppies!
LoL.
I’ve gotten to the point where I’ll make beef neck bone stew instead, if I can find any with a good bit of meat on them. Not quite the same (less collagen), but less than half the price, usually.
Until some influencer catches on, and then we’ll have to find something else.
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I had a darn good version somewhere in Portugalete (the Basque region), 'cept there it was called rabo de buey:
However, the first time I saw it on a menu was at a Jakarta hotel-- the dish was called sup buntut, oxtail soup.
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I don’t think the oxen are happy.
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That just means people finally appreciate these cuts. I say it is a good thing.
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