With much excitement in his voice, my sons’ dad said to me, “Angie, mi go over mi uncle yard, and him cook a piece a oxtail deh!”
So hear me wid my inquisitive self, “weh him put in dere?”
Him seh, “cow skin.”
Immediately I began to salivate. I could taste the gelatinous gravy from the cow skin…Oh my Lord!
I said, “I’m going to the store right now to get the cow skin. Mi affi cook dat!”
He laughed and said, “yuh nuh like hear seh nobady cook nutten better dan yuh, don’t?
We both bust out a big dutty laugh. I laugh for every damn thing.
Since I have many versions of braised oxtails in my repertoire, I wasn’t interested in his uncle’s recipe or method of cooking the oxtails, however,  I knew there had to have been something extra in the oxtails, that intrigued this man so much. I just needed to find out what had given the oxtails that extra umph; then make it Ange’lusciously authentic.
….AND I SMILE….

So off to the Jamaican store I went to find the cow skin. You won’t find this in just any supermarket. It has to be one of those ethnic markets. I chose burnt cow skin simply because my intuition told me to. Braised oxtails are amazing. Traditional Jamaica add lima beans aka butter beans because of it’s buttery texture which compliments it exceedingly well.
Check out the dinner spread….MAAAAAADDDDD…….yuh like it?
Yeah…go tell yuh uncle fi come ova yah so now!

So as you can see, I did the damn thing! I actually like the cow skin much better than the cow foot.  I think going forward, I will begin to utilize the cow skin even more. I mean, the only difference is the absence of  the bones.  The texture is very much like cow foot. Better yet, I’ll continue to buy the cow foot and the cow skin…and combine them. Remember the flavor lies within the bones!

Y’all better get your some braised oxtails. It’s  some kinda greatness!