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Mock Turtle of Calf's Head

A mock turtle made from calf's head, boiled, stewed, and baked with gravy, brain cakes, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Randolph · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mock Turtle of Calf's Head

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Clean the head nicely.

  2. Divide the chop from the skull.

  3. Remove the brains and tongue.

  4. Boil the remaining parts until tender.

Make the gravy

  1. Remove them from the water and add a knuckle of veal or four pounds of lean beef, three chopped onions, thyme, parsley, a teaspoonful of pounded cloves, the same of mace, salt, and cayenne pepper to taste.

  2. Boil these together until reduced to a pint.

  3. Strain the mixture.

  4. Add two gills of red wine, one of mushroom, and one of walnut catsup.

  5. Thicken with butter and brown flour.

  6. Cut the head into small pieces and stew a few minutes in the gravy.

Make the brain cakes

  1. Pick all strings from the brains, pound them, and mix with grated bread, pepper, and salt; form into little cakes with the yolk of an egg.

  2. Fry the cakes until nicely browned.

Bake and serve

  1. Place a paste around the edge of a deep dish, three folds, one on top of the other, but none on the bottom.

  2. Pour the meat and gravy into the dish and bake until the paste is done.

  3. Boil six eggs hard.

  4. Leave one egg whole and divide the others in half.

  5. Bake some bits of paste.

  6. When the head is taken from the oven, place the whole egg in the middle and arrange the others, brain cakes, and bits of paste around it.

  7. If desired as soup, do not reduce the gravy so much; after stewing the head, serve it in a tureen with the brain cakes and forcemeat balls fried in place of the eggs and paste.

  8. Salt the tongue and put it in brine; boil and peel four tongues, and serve with four small boiled chickens, parsley, and butter poured over them.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

508Calories
59 gProtein
20 gFat
16 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 11 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Chicken100g cooked165
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
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 Mary Randolph. 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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Beef + chickentop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,148 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Lean beef
Adds rich meat flavor and body to the gravy as it simmers down.
Red wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavor to the gravy.
Brown flour (in the method)
Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, nutty color and flavor.
Butter (in the method)
Adds fat and richness to the thickened gravy.
Onions
Add sweetness and aromatic flavor to the stock.
Eggs
Bind the brain cakes and serve as a garnish for the dish.

The step that matters

Reduce the gravy to a pint before thickening. Reducing concentrates flavor and sets the gravy's body; boiling it too long or too little changes how much thickening it takes and how strongly it tastes.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, red wine, onion, egg, chicken, thyme, parsley):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Rosemaryfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, red wine, onion, egg, chicken, thyme, parsley. 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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