AKA forever lol. Edit: I was just being hyperbolic. It can be a task, that is all I meant.
Forty-five minutes to an hour in a pressure cooker. Doesn’t seem like forever to me, as any stew or stock I make takes at least that much amount of time if I don’t use a pressure cooker. And it’s pretty much hands-off cooking. Set a pot up to go after lunch, walk away for a few hours, and it’s ready for dinner. There’s nothing more “homey” for me than a pot of stew cooking in the house on a fall day as I work away. A long cook is 6-12+ hours for me, when I have to wake up at the crack of dawn to stoke the fire and throw my pork shoulder or brisket on. 
And some people do brisket at lower temps much longer.
Can castration cause an ox to turn blue? Or did Babe still have a pair and no sex life?
No I am right there with you. Sometimes, there is no time that is all. 
Sure, it ain’t throwing a sandwich together or frying up a chicken breast, yes. It’s pretty easy, just takes time. Dammit, now I want some Jamaican ox-tail stew, but I can’t bring myself to pay $10/lb for oxtail.
This thread is becoming an oxtail recipe thread. I am fine with that
As a “peasant food”, oxtail used to be fairly cheap around here (NYC suburbs) and in the Toronto suburbs too, where I have family and spend several weeks a year.
In the past few years it’s gotten really expensive. Around 2019 I was in a supermarket in Toronto and it was on sale for $6.99/lb, reduced from $9.99, and several customers were lined up waiting to buy it. We got to talking and they all bemoaned the high price but really wanted it for their traditional West Indian or Filipino dishes.
Last week I saw it in the supermarket near me for $10.99. Unbelievable, more expensive than some of the steaks!
I have to wonder whether it’s a supply and demand issue? It’s not that big a part of the ox, and maybe there are more and more people (at least where I shop) who want it.
I guess if you’re making stock, you take the bones out. But taking the bones out of oxtail stew would be a crime against humanity.
Around here, in Chicago, I want to say I noticed the premium on oxtails as far back as the mid-to-late 2000s. They were probably just about $4.99/lb back then, but this was more than all the stewing cuts (shank was about $1.49-1.99/lb; chuck about $1.99-$2.49/lb; short rib at $2.49-$3.59/lb) and on the lower end of steak prices (which started just about $5.99/lb.) This is going by my middle-aged memory, so take with a grain of salt.
Really? Not even in this line?
Oxtail is a gelatin-rich meat, which is usually slow-cooked as a stew[2] or braised. It is a traditional stock base for oxtail soup.
For the pioneers heading west, one of the fundamental decisions was whether to use oxen or horses to pull the wagons and plows. Oxen are stronger, but horses are faster.
Oxen required less food than horses. They are more efficient at converting food to work than horses. I’d be surprised if draft horses were significantly faster than oxen at pulling wagons and plows. I think there must have been other reasons for selecting horses.
A horse is more prestigious. That is always a factor. I would think an ox would be stronger, I am no expert though
All of my ancestors crossed the plains to Utah or Idaho as Mormons. Most by ox chart although a few were in the handcart companies (that ran into severe problems).
This article explains it well.
Often the Mormon church leaders would travel by horse carts because of the speed, but the masses used oxen, or pushed and pulled carts by hand.
The part about the harnesses occured to me. You would need more horses than oxen and those horse rigs were expensive to purchase and maintain.
And drive. The church leaders or wealthy could afford to hire drivers for them but the average settler could not.
Also, the oxen are only $11 apiece (or $12, if you don’t know where to shop). Horses are like, $92-- I’m not even sure-- I traded for them, never bought them from a store. Mules, a third option, are about $45.
Are those current prices? Surely not. I mean, if nothing else, an ox is about a thousand pounds of meat and hide, right?
Yep. There was this trend of ‘upscaling’ peasant and ethnic and ‘low-class’ foods for a while. Oxtail got really popular, and the only difference between ‘garbage part of the animal’ and ‘luxury part of the animal’ is demand.
So if I don’t castrate my bull, and yoke him to a cart, he’s an ox? If I yoke my cow beside him, she’s also an ox?
I always assumed an ox was what a male cattle individual destined to be a bull became after he got castrated.