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Mock Turtle or Calf's Head Soup

A soup made from a calf's head, pig's feet, eggs, spices, and a meatball garnish, served with lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Women of the First Congregational Church (Marysville, Ohio) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mock Turtle or Calf's Head Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Lay the cleaned calf's head and four pig's feet in the bottom of a large pot and cover with a gallon of water.

  2. Boil for three hours, or until the flesh will slip from the bones.

  3. Remove the head, leaving the feet to continue boiling while the meat is cut from the head.

  4. Select enough fatty portions from the top of the head and cheeks to fill a teacup, and set aside to cool.

  5. Remove the brains to a saucer, and also set aside.

  6. Chop the remaining meat and tongue very finely, season with salt, pepper, powdered marjoram, thyme, a teaspoon of cloves, one mace, half as much allspice, and grated nutmeg.

  7. When the flesh falls from the bones of the feet, remove the bones, leaving the gelatinous meat.

  8. Boil all together slowly, without removing the cover, for two more hours.

  9. Take the soup from the fire and set it aside until the next day.

Make the force meat-balls

  1. Prepare the force meat-balls: rub the yolks of five hard‑boiled eggs to a paste in a wedgewood mortar or in a bowl.

  2. With the back of a silver spoon, gradually add the brains to moisten them, also a little butter and salt.

  3. Mix with the two lightly beaten eggs, flour the hands, and shape the paste into balls about the size of a pigeon's egg.

Finish and serve

  1. An hour before dinner, set the stock over the fire; when it boils, strain carefully and drop in the reserved meat, which when cold should be cut into small squares.

  2. Throw the meatballs into the soup five minutes before taking it from the fire.

  3. Stir in a large tablespoon of browned flour rubbed smooth in a little cold water, and finish the seasoning with a glass and a half of sherry or Madeira wine and the juice of a lemon.

  4. The soup should not boil more than half an hour on the second day.

  5. Serve with sliced lemons.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

106Calories
7 gProtein
7 gFat
5 gCarbs

Counts 6 of 8 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot 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 Women of the First Congregational Church (Marysville, Ohio). 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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Thyme + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

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

  5. Clove + thymetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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 gelatinous meat and body that give the soup its rich texture.
Pig's feet
Release gelatin during long simmering, thickening the stock and giving it body.
Eggs
Bind the paste so the force meat-balls hold their shape when cooked.
Browned flour (in the method)
Thickens the soup and adds a toasted, deeper colour and flavour.
Sherry or madeira wine (in the method)
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to finish the seasoning.

The step that matters

Boil all together slowly, without removing the cover. Gentle simmering draws gelatin from bones and connective tissue slowly; a hard boil toughens the meat and can cloud the stock.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, egg, thyme, allspice, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, egg, thyme, allspice, nutmeg. 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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