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Mock Turtle

A hearty soup made from calf's head, veal, herbs, stock, and force‑meat balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 30 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mock Turtle

10 persons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Scald the calf's head with the skin on, remove the brain, tie the head up in a cloth, and let it boil for 1 hour.

  2. Take the meat from the bones, cut it into small square pieces, and throw them into cold water.

  3. Take the meat, put it into a stewpan, and cover with stock; let it boil gently for an hour, or more if not quite tender, and set it on one side.

Make the base

  1. Melt the butter in another stewpan, and add the ham, cut small, with the herbs, parsley, onions, shallots, mushrooms, and nearly a pint of stock; let these simmer slowly for 2 hours.

  2. Dredge the mixture in as much flour as will dry up the butter.

  3. Fill up with the remainder of the stock, add the wine, let it stew gently for 10 minutes.

  4. Rub it through a tammy, and put it to the calf's head.

Season and finish

  1. Season with cayenne, and, if required, a little salt.

  2. Add the juice of the orange and lemon; and when liked, 1/4 teaspoonful of pounded mace, and the sugar.

  3. Put in the force meat balls, simmer 5 minutes, and serve very hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

875Calories
45 gProtein
12 gFat
141 gCarbs

Counts 12 of 14 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 12 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Anchovy100g210
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Macenot in our table0
Waternot 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 Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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

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

  2. Parsley + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

  4. Shallot + lemontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,523 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Flour + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the base by absorbing the melted butter and fat.
Stock
Provides the liquid body and savory depth of the soup.
Madeira
Adds wine flavour and aroma to the finished soup.
Onions
Build savory sweetness and aroma as they soften slowly.
Lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, heavy broth.

The step that matters

Skim off all the fat and strain carefully. The soup is stewed for hours and must be cold before skimming, so the fat solidifies and can be lifted off cleanly. Straining removes residue, keeping the broth clear and smooth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, flour, anchovy, onion, shallot, lemon, orange):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, flour, anchovy, onion, shallot, lemon, orange. 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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