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Mock Turtle or Calf's Head Soup

A hearty soup made from calf's head, pig's feet, and various spices, finished with egg yolk meatballs and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Mock Turtle or Calf's Head Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a large pot, place the cleaned calf's head and pig's feet, then cover with 1 gallon of water.

  2. Boil for 3 hours, or until the meat slips from the bones.

  3. Remove the head, leaving the feet to boil steadily while you cut the meat from the head.

  4. Select enough fatty portions from the head and cheeks to fill a teacup and set aside to cool.

  5. Remove the brains and set aside.

  6. Chop the remaining meat and tongue finely, then season with salt, pepper, marjoram, thyme, cloves, mace, allspice, and nutmeg.

  7. Once the meat falls from the bones of the feet, remove the bones and leave the gelatinous meat.

  8. Boil everything together slowly for 2 more hours without removing the cover.

  9. Let the soup cool overnight.

Finish and serve

  1. An hour before serving, reheat the stock and strain it carefully.

  2. Add the reserved meat, cut into small squares.

  3. To make the force meat‑balls, mash the egg yolks in a bowl, adding the brains, butter, and salt gradually.

  4. Mix in the beaten eggs, then form into balls the size of a pigeon's egg.

  5. Add the balls to the soup 5 minutes before serving.

  6. Stir in the browned flour mixed with a little cold water, then add the sherry and lemon juice.

  7. Do not boil for more than 30 minutes on the second day.

  8. Serve with sliced lemons.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Thyme + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's head
Provides gelatin and body, giving the stock its rich, thick texture as it cooks.
Pig's feet
Release gelatin during long simmering, helping the stock set and feel silky.
Egg yolks
Bind the force meat balls together and give them a rich, tender texture.
Eggs
Bind the force meat mixture so the balls hold their shape when cooked.
Browned flour
Thickens the soup and adds a deeper, toasted flavour and colour.
Sherry or madeira wine
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Adding the browned flour and wine at the end. Flour mixed with cold water and stirred in before the soup is hot can clump, so it should be blended smoothly and stirred in while the stock is hot, not boiled hard. Adding the wine and lemon at the end keeps their aroma, since long boiling drives off volatile flavour compounds.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, marjoram, thyme, clove, allspice, nutmeg, egg):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, marjoram, thyme, clove, allspice, nutmeg, egg. 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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