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Mock Turtle or Calf's Head Soup

A rich soup made from a calf's head, veal, ham, bacon, vegetables, Madeira, and small meatballs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,842 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Mock Turtle or Calf's Head Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Clean, wash, and soak a large calf's head; put it in a pot with a knuckle of veal, a hock of ham, or a few slices of bacon, reserving veal for meatballs.

  2. Add enough water to cover the head and other meats.

  3. Boil slowly for four hours, skimming carefully.

Make the soup

  1. Add six sliced potatoes, three sliced turnips, equal parts of parsley, sweet marjoram, and sweet basil, chopped finely, plus pepper and salt to taste.

  2. One hour before serving, make about two dozen small force-meat balls from minced veal and beef suet, seasoning with pepper, salt, sweet herbs, grated lemon peel, powdered nutmeg, and mace; add beaten egg yolk, flour, and fry in butter.

  3. Remove the head and other meats from the soup, cut the meat from the head into small pieces, and return it to the soup.

  4. When the soup is nearly done, stir in half a pint of Madeira.

  5. Prepare at least a dozen egg-balls by mixing yolks of hard-boiled eggs with flour and raw egg yolk, shaping them into marbles.

  6. Add the egg-balls and a squeeze of lemon juice to the soup, let it boil slowly again, then serve in a tureen.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

932Calories
26 gProtein
15 gFat
178 gCarbs

Counts 12 of 15 ingredients. The other 3 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
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Corn1/2 cup kernels (82g)77
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Turnip1 medium (122g)34
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Mushroom1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Vealnot 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 Leslie. 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 + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Flour + turniptop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Potato + turniptop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together562 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's head (in the method)
Provides gelatin and meat, giving the soup its body and rich, savory character.
Potatoes
Break down during long simmering to thicken the soup and add body.
Madeira
Adds a sweet, fortified wine aroma and depth to the finished soup.
Egg yolks (in the method)
Bind the force-meat and egg-balls, giving them a tender, set texture.

The step that matters

Skimming during the four-hour boil. Long simmering releases foam and fat from the head and meats; skimming carefully keeps the stock clear and free of greasy, off-flavored residue.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, parsley, mushroom, meat, potato, veal):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, parsley, mushroom, meat, potato, veal. 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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