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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, lemon, and force meat balls.

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 for 1 hour until the meat slips from the bone.

  5. Remove the head.

  6. Save the broth.

  7. Cut the meat into small pieces.

  8. Place the meat in cold water.

  9. Put the meat in a stewpan and cover with some broth.

  10. Boil until tender.

  11. Set the meat aside.

Make the soup

  1. Melt the butter.

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

  3. Add about 4 cups of broth.

  4. Simmer for 2 hours.

  5. Dredge in a small quantity of flour.

  6. Add the remaining broth.

  7. Add Madeira or sherry.

  8. Let it stew quietly for 10 minutes.

  9. Strain through a medium sieve.

  10. Add the calf's head pieces.

  11. Season with cayenne, salt, lemon juice, mace, and sugar.

  12. Add prepared force meat balls.

  13. 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 gelatin that give the soup its body and rich texture.
Butter
Fat that carries the onion and herbs and begins the base of the soup.
Flour
Thickens the broth slightly so it has a smoother body.
Madeira or sherry
Adds acidity and a rich, fortified wine aroma to the finished soup.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the rich broth.
Lean ham
Adds savoury, salty depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Dredge in a small quantity of flour. Flour stirred into hot fat and cooked briefly thickens liquid smoothly; adding it straight to liquid or using too much can leave lumps or a pasty texture.

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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