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Mock Turtle Soup

A hearty soup made from calf head, spices, stock, meat, eggs, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Tracy, Suzanne. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 22 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,324 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Wash, scrape, and clean the calf's head; soak for an hour or more in cold water.

  2. Remove the brains and tongue; let stand in cold water to be cooked separately.

  3. Cut the head into many pieces; put into the kettle.

  4. Add cold water and heat slowly. Skim thoroughly. Add salt.

  5. Simmer for three hours, or until the meat slips from the bones.

  6. Lay the meat on a plate so it can be easily cut when cold.

Make the stock

  1. Put the bones on to boil again.

  2. Add the spices and vegetables.

  3. Simmer until reduced to two quarts.

  4. Strain and set aside to cool.

  5. When cold, remove the fat.

Thicken and finish

  1. Half an hour before serving, put the stock on to boil.

  2. In another saucepan, brown the butter. Add the cornstarch or flour and brown.

  3. Add one tablespoonful each of ground pepper, thyme or marjoram, and one teaspoonful of salt.

  4. Add the brown stock and cook until it thickens. Add to the soup.

  5. Cut the face meat into half-inch cubes. Add one cup of diced meat.

  6. Boil the eggs for twenty minutes. Cut the eggs into slices, or make the yolks into balls.

  7. Make force meatballs with the reserve meat.

  8. Put the meatballs and hard-boiled eggs into the tureen. Add the soup.

  9. Serve with slices of lemon, or omit the lemon and add half a cup of sherry wine.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

849Calories
26 gProtein
20 gFat
140 gCarbs

Counts 14 of 16 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 14 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Corn1/2 cup kernels (82g)77
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Meatnot in our table0
Macenot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Tracy, Suzanne. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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. Pepper + corntop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,165 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 gelatin and meat that give the soup body and richness.
Flour
Thickens the browned butter into a roux that gives the soup body.
Butter
Carries flavor and helps form the roux that thickens the soup.
Eggs
Hard-boiled eggs add firm texture and form part of the garnish.
Sherry wine
Adds acidity and aroma as an optional finish in place of lemon.

The step that matters

Thickening the roux. Browning the flour in butter must be done gently and evenly. Scorched flour gives a bitter taste and dark color, and undercooked flour leaves a raw, pasty flavor and weak thickening.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, pepper, meat, sherry, wine, corn):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, pepper, meat, sherry, wine, corn. 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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