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Mock Turtle Soup

A soup made from calf head liquor, onion, cloves, herbs, parsley, meat extract, sugar, lemon, sherry, forcemeat balls, and diced gelatinous parts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Skim and strain the liquor from the boiled calf's head.

  2. Boil the strained liquor with the onion, cloves, herbs, and parsley until well flavored.

  3. Strain the mixture again and color it with the meat extract.

  4. Add the sugar and thicken to the consistency of very thin cream.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the lemon juice, sherry, and forcemeat balls.

  2. Serve very hot, adding the diced gelatinous parts of the calf's head.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  5. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Liquor from boiling half a calf's head
Provides the main meaty body and gelatin that give the soup its base flavor.
Thickening of corn flour or arrowroot
Starch swells when heated, thickening the broth to a light, creamy consistency.
Liebig's meat extract
Adds concentrated savory depth and deepens the broth's color.
Sherry
Adds aromatic, slightly sweet and acidic notes that round out the soup.
Juice of ½ lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the rich broth and balances its flavor.
Gelatinous parts of the calf's head
Contributes soft, gelatin-rich texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Thicken to the consistency of very thin cream. Starch must be fully heated to swell and thicken the broth; if it is undercooked the soup stays thin and tastes raw, and if overcooked it becomes gluey.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, thyme, marjoram, parsley, meat, corn, lemon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, thyme, marjoram, parsley, meat, corn, 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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