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Soup

Calf's-head or Mock-turtle Soup

A soup made from calf's head, tomatoes, sherry, and lemon, thickened with a brown roux.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Calf's-head or Mock-turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Make a brown roux by putting in a saucepan one tablespoonful of butter, let it brown, add two tablespoonfuls of flour, and let that brown.

  2. Then add, slowly at first, one and a half or two quarts of water in which a calf's head has been boiled, white wine instead of vinegar being used in the boiling (see boiled calf's head, page 175).

  3. Add three or four strained tomatoes and simmer for one half hour.

  4. Skim off any fat and season with salt and pepper.

Finish and serve

  1. Add some pieces of boiled calf's head cut in pieces one half inch square, a few egg balls, two or three tablespoonfuls of sherry, and a few very thin slices of lemon.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

613Calories
14 gProtein
13 gFat
102 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
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 Mary Ronald. 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. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Sherry + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together660 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

Butter
Browned with the flour to form a roux, adding nutty flavour and colour to the base.
Flour
Thickens the soup once browned in the butter, giving it body.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and colour, and a fresh tang to the broth.
Sherry
Adds aromatic depth and a mellow, slightly sweet flavour at the end.

The step that matters

Browning the roux. The butter and flour must brown slowly without burning; scorched flour turns bitter and dark, spoiling the flavour of the whole soup, while properly browned roux gives colour and a toasted, savoury depth.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, sherry, vinegar, pepper. 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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