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Calf's Head or Mock Turtle

A soup made from calf's head, diced meat, brains, and a thickened stock flavored with spices and mushroom ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Clarke, Mary Lamson. [from old catalog] · 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 ↓

Calf's Head or Mock Turtle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Clean one calf's head with skin on, cut in halves, and wash well in salt and water.

  2. Remove the brains and tie them in coarse muslin to be cooked separately; boil in four quarts of water until the meat is tender and ready to slip from the bones.

  3. Lay the meat flat on a platter, return bones to the pot and boil until the water is reduced to two quarts, then strain and cool.

  4. Remove fat and return to the fire with two quarts rich brown stock, two whole cloves, a blade of mace, six allspice berries, one chili, and more salt if needed.

  5. While this is simmering, cut the meat and tongue into dice; there should be a generous pint; chop the trimmings to a paste.

Make the meatballs

  1. Cook the brains twenty minutes and pound with the chopped meat; season with salt, pepper and thyme; add a little beaten egg to bind it well together and shape into balls the size of a large hickory nut and fry them brown in a little butter.

Finish and serve

  1. Brown four tablespoonfuls flour in two tablespoonfuls butter or bacon fat and add hot soup to it slowly, stirring well until smooth; add it to the stock.

  2. Put meat balls and diced meat into a hot tureen and strain the boiling stock over them.

  3. Serve with a glass of sherry wine, or thin slices of lemon and a tablespoonful of mushroom catsup.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

602Calories
16 gProtein
14 gFat
104 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 11 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Mushroom1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Meatnot 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 Clarke, Mary Lamson. [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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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 meat, tongue and bones that give the soup its body and gelatin.
Brains (in the method)
Are pounded into the meatballs, giving them a rich, tender texture.
Egg (in the method)
Binds the pounded meat so the meatballs hold their shape when fried.
Flour
Browned in butter and stirred into the stock, it thickens the soup.
Butter
Browns the flour for the roux and fries the meatballs, adding richness.
Brown stock
Forms the savoury base of the soup, carrying the spices and meat flavour.

The step that matters

Stirring the browned flour into the hot soup. Adding hot liquid to flour too quickly or without stirring forms lumps. Adding it slowly while stirring keeps the thickening smooth.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, flour, butter, mushroom, allspice, pepper, thyme):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, flour, butter, mushroom, allspice, pepper, thyme. 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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