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Mock Turtle Soup of Calf's Head

A soup made from a calf's head, tongue, ham, onions, herbs, wine, and mushroom catsup, thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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 Soup of Calf's Head

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Divide the front part of the cleaned calf's head and remove the tongue.

  2. In a large pot, combine the head, tongue, water, ham or pork, onions, thyme, parsley, cloves, nutmeg, pepper, and salt.

  3. Boil until the flesh on the head is tender.

  4. Remove the head, cut the meat into small pieces, and carefully take out the eyes.

Make and finish the soup

  1. Strain the cooking liquid and add the wine and mushroom catsup.

  2. Boil slowly until reduced to 2 quarts.

  3. Thicken the soup with the browned flour mixed with butter.

  4. Add the meat back into the soup and stew for a short time before serving.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's head
Provides the gelatinous flesh and body that gives the soup its rich texture.
Browned flour
Thickens the soup and adds a toasted, deeper flavour and colour.
Butter
Enriches the thickened soup and carries flavour, giving it a smooth mouthfeel.
Wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to balance the rich meat broth.
Onions
Build savoury sweetness and aroma in the long-simmered broth.
Mushroom catsup
Adds concentrated savoury, umami flavour to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Boiling the head until tender. Undercooked flesh stays tough and gelatin is not fully released, so the broth lacks body; boiling gently keeps the meat intact and tender.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, thyme, parsley, clove, nutmeg, pepper, wine):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, thyme, parsley, clove, nutmeg, pepper, wine. 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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