Skip to main content
Main

Mock Turtle Soup

A rich soup made with calf's head, veal, beef, ham, vegetables, herbs, spices, and Marsala wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 25 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Prepare the calf's head and place it in a pot with the veal and beef.

  2. Add 1 pint of cold water.

  3. Let it sit by the fire for 1 hour.

  4. Fry the vegetables in ½ lb of butter until golden brown.

  5. Add the fried vegetables, herbs, ham, spices, and 4 quarts of cold water to the pot.

  6. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  7. Skim off any foam.

  8. Add the Marsala.

  9. Simmer for 2 hours, skimming frequently.

Finish the soup

  1. Remove the head.

  2. Pull out the bones.

  3. Press the meat between two dishes with a weight until cool.

  4. Return the bones and trimmings to the pot.

  5. Simmer for 4 hours, skimming constantly.

Make the thickening

  1. Knead ½ lb of fresh butter with 5 tablespoons of flour until slightly browned.

  2. Add spices to the butter‑flour mixture.

  3. Mix well.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 its gelatin, body and rich mouthfeel as it simmers.
Butter
Fat that carries flavor and, browned with flour, adds nutty color and aroma.
Flour
Thickens the butter mixture so it can give body to the finished soup.
Marsala
Adds wine acidity and aromatic depth to the simmering stock.
Veal and beef
Lean meats that build savory, meaty flavor in the stock.
Onions
Fried until golden, they add sweetness and deep savory flavor to the base.

The step that matters

Browning the butter and flour. Cooking the flour in butter until only slightly browned toasts it for color and nutty flavor while thickening. Overheating scorches it, which gives bitter taste and dark specks.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, ham, celery, carrot, turnip, parsley):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Okrafits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, ham, celery, carrot, turnip, parsley. 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.

You might also like

Beef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipes