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Mook Turtle Soup

A hearty soup made from calf's head, ham, herbs, flour, sherry, and force meat balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Mook Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Scald the calf's head and remove the brain.

  2. Tie the head in a cloth and boil for 1 hour.

  3. Cut the meat into small square pieces and set aside.

  4. Place the bones in cold water, then add the meat to a stewpan and cover with stock.

  5. Boil gently for 1 hour or until tender, then set aside.

Make the soup

  1. In another stewpan, melt butter and add the diced ham, herbs, parsley, onions, and mushrooms.

  2. Once hot, sift in the flour, stir, and let it brown.

  3. Gradually add 1 pint of stock and the wine, then stew gently for 10 minutes and pass through a sieve.

  4. Add the tender pieces of calf's head, season with cayenne, salt, mace, and sugar.

  5. Add the force meat balls and let them simmer for 5 minutes before serving.

Finish the stock

  1. Stew the bones in the liquid from boiling the head to make good white stock.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Calf's head
Gives the soup body and richness from its meat and gelatin.
Flour
Browned in the fat to thicken the soup and add a nutty flavour.
Onions
Cook down into the base, adding sweetness and savoury aroma.
Lean ham
Adds salty, savoury depth to the base.
Sherry or madeira
Adds fortified wine aroma and a touch of acidity.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, heavy soup.

The step that matters

Brown the flour. Cooking the flour in hot fat until it browns removes its raw taste and gives the soup a nutty depth and thickening power. Adding the stock gradually keeps the mixture smooth, without lumps.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, parsley, mushroom, lemon, thyme, marjoram, basil):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, parsley, mushroom, lemon, thyme, marjoram, basil. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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