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Mock Turtle Soup, of Calfs Head

A soup made from calf's head, ham, herbs, and broth, finished with Madeira or sherry and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup, of Calfs Head

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the calf's head

  1. Scald the calf's head.

  2. Remove the brain.

  3. Tie the head in a cloth.

  4. Boil the head for 1 hour until the meat slips from the bone.

  5. Remove the head.

  6. Save the broth.

  7. Cut the meat into small square pieces.

  8. Place the meat in cold water until cool.

  9. Transfer the meat to a stewpan.

  10. Cover the stewpan with some broth.

  11. Boil the stewpan until the meat is tender.

  12. Set the stew aside.

Make the soup base

  1. Melt the butter in another stewpan.

  2. Add the ham, fine herbs, parsley, and onion to the stewpan.

  3. Pour in about 1 pint of the broth.

  4. Let the mixture simmer for 2 hours.

  5. Dredge the mixture in a small quantity of flour.

  6. Add the remaining broth.

  7. Add the Madeira or sherry.

  8. Stew quietly for 10 minutes.

  9. Rub the mixture through a medium sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the calf's head.

  2. Season with cayenne pepper, salt, lemon juice, mace, and sugar.

  3. Add the prepared force meat balls.

  4. Serve hot after 5 minutes.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's head
Provides the meat and gelatinous body that give the soup its substance and texture.
Butter
Fat that carries the aromatics and adds richness to the soup base.
Flour
Thickens the simmering mixture so it becomes body-rich rather than watery.
Madeira or sherry
Adds acidity and fortified wine aroma that brightens the rich broth.
Ham
Adds savory, salty depth to the broth as it simmers with the aromatics.

The step that matters

Dredge the mixture in a small quantity of flour. Too much flour leaves a pasty, dull taste, while too little fails to thicken; a small, evenly stirred amount thickens the broth smoothly without lumps.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, parsley, butter, flour, sherry, pepper, lemon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, parsley, butter, flour, sherry, pepper, lemon. 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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