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Modi Turtle Soup

A soup made from a calf's head, veal knuckle, beef shin, onions, herbs, spices, and thickened with flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Basil and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,823 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Modi Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head and stock

  1. Soak the cleaned calf's head in lukewarm water, changing the water often to remove blood and slime.

  2. Boil the head in a stew-pan with enough cold water to cover it for about 30 minutes.

  3. Remove the head, let it cool, then cut it into small pieces and keep covered until the next day.

  4. In the soup kettle, add the bones and refuse parts of the head, the veal knuckle, and soaked shin of beef.

  5. Simmer the mixture gently for 4.5 to 6 hours, then strain the stock into a pan and set aside.

Finish the soup

  1. The next day, remove the fat from the stock and pour it into a large stew-pan, holding back the sediment.

  2. Bring the stock to a boil, add a little salt to help remove any remaining scum, and skim it off.

  3. Add the sliced onions, fried sage, sweet basil, lemon peel, cayenne, black pepper, allspice, mace, cloves, eschalot, and flour for thickening.

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 + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,823 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Sage + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together331 recipes

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

  3. Sage + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Sage + basiltop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together223 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's head
Provides gelatin and body, giving the finished soup a rich, thick texture.
Shin of beef
Adds meaty flavor and gelatin to the stock during long simmering.
Veal knuckle
Contributes gelatin and savory depth to the stock.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic flavor as they cook into the soup.
Flour
Thickens the stock so it has a fuller body.

The step that matters

Skimming the stock after bringing it to a boil. Scum and remaining fat rise to the surface as the stock heats. Removing them keeps the soup clear and free of greasy, off-flavors before the thickening and seasonings go in.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, sage, basil, lemon, pepper, allspice):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, sage, basil, lemon, pepper, allspice. 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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