Skip to main content
Soup

Mock Turtle

A turtle head soup simmered with herbs, onions, carrot, and Madeira, finished with catsup, basil, tarragon, parsley, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Basil and tarragon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 326 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Mock Turtle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turtle

  1. Soak the turtle head in hot water.

  2. Parboil it in enough water to cover, with sweet herbs, onions, and carrot for 30 minutes.

  3. Remove the head.

  4. Let it cool.

  5. Slice the meat.

  6. Remove any black parts.

  7. Put bones and trimmings back in the pot.

  8. Keep simmering.

Make the soup

  1. Fry minced onion in butter and dredged flour.

  2. Add the fried onion to the pot with the sliced meat.

  3. Add enough stock to make a stew-soup.

  4. Season with mace, pepper, salt, and Madeira.

  5. Simmer slowly until the meat is cooked.

  6. Add catsup, basil, tarragon, and parsley.

  7. Skim before serving.

  8. Add lemon juice.

  9. Pour into a tureen.

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. Basil + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together326 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Pepper + basiltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Carrot + basiltop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,113 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  4. Pepper + tarragontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 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

Turtle head
Provides the main meat and gelatinous body that gives the soup its texture and richness.
Browned flour
Thickens the soup and adds a toasted, nutty depth to the broth.
Butter
Fat for frying the onion, carrying its flavour into the soup.
Madeira
Adds fortified wine sweetness and aromatic depth to the finished soup.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, heavy broth.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly until the meat is cooked. Gentle simmering lets collagen in the head and bones break down into gelatin, giving body and tender meat. A hard boil toughens the proteins and can cloud the broth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, carrot, butter, flour, pepper, basil, tarragon):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, carrot, butter, flour, pepper, basil, tarragon. 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

Indian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and SpinachIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and Spinach448 recipesClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd SoupClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd Soup65 recipesMock Bisque SoupMock Bisque Soup51 recipesCream of Asparagus SoupCream of Asparagus Soup42 recipes