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Soup

Old-fashioned Mock Turtle

A rich soup of calf's head, skin, tongue and brain in beef stock, thickened with flour and butter, flavoured with sherry and served with forcemeat balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 40 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Old-fashioned Mock Turtle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head and stock

  1. Wash and soak the calf's head well after taking out the brain.

  2. Pour nine quarts of cold water over the head and bring it gently to the boil.

  3. Skim the water very clean and boil the head for an hour and a half if large.

  4. Lift the head out.

  5. Put the neck of beef, browned lightly in a little fresh butter, into the liquor with the lean ham, sliced onions, celery, carrots, savoury herbs, lemon rind, peppercorns and salt.

  6. Take the meat from the head and add all the bones and fragments.

  7. Stew these gently for six to seven hours.

  8. Strain off the stock and set it in a very cool place so the fat firms on top.

  9. Clear off the fat, then cut the skin and fat of the head into strips of two or three inches long and one inch wide.

  10. Carve the tongue in the same way or into dice.

Make the soup

  1. Put the stock, between four and five quarts, into a large soup or stewpot.

  2. When it boils, thicken it with four ounces of fresh butter mixed with an equal weight of fine dry flour, half a teaspoonful of pounded mace and a third as much cayenne.

  3. Pour in half a pint of sherry and stir until it has simmered a minute or two.

  4. Put in the head and stew gently for an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half, stirring often and clearing off scum.

Add the forcemeat and serve

  1. Just before serving, add the three dozen small forcemeat balls and the brain cut into dice, after it has been soaked, scalded and freed from the film, dipped in beaten egg yolk and then in fine crumbs mixed with salt, white pepper, grated nutmeg, lemon rind and chopped parsley, and fried a fine brown.

  2. Drain the brain well before serving.

  3. Dish the soup and put the fried forcemeat balls into the tureen.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

846Calories
66 gProtein
47 gFat
35 gCarbs

Counts 14 of 17 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 14 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Beef100g cooked250
Pork100g cooked242
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Turnip1 medium (122g)34
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Mushroom1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Soupnot 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 Eliza Acton. 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. Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Sherry + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Celery + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,169 recipes

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

  5. Rice + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,515 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Fresh butter
Enriches the thickening and adds richness and a silky body to the soup.
Fine dry flour
Thickens the stock when cooked with butter, giving the soup body.
Rice-flour
Thickens the soup into a batter-like body as it simmers.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma, rounding out the rich stock.
Lean ham
Adds savoury depth and salty meaty flavour to the stock.

The step that matters

Let the stock cool and skim the fat. Chilling lets fat rise and solidify so it can be removed cleanly, keeping the soup light and clear rather than greasy.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, rice, flour, sherry, mushroom, ham):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Turmericfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, rice, flour, sherry, mushroom, ham. 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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