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Mock Turtle or Calf's-head Soup

A soup made from calf's head, pig's feet, egg yolks, brains, butter, flour, wine, lemon, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Mock Turtle or Calf's-head Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Place the calf's head and pig's feet in a large pot.

  2. Cover the pot with water.

  3. Boil for 3 hours or until the flesh slips from the bones.

  4. Remove the head.

  5. Continue boiling the feet.

  6. Let the soup cool.

  7. Set the soup aside until the next day.

Finish the soup

  1. Reheat the stock an hour before serving.

  2. Strain the stock carefully.

  3. Cut the reserved meat into small squares.

  4. Add the meat squares to the soup.

  5. Mash the egg yolks with the brains, butter, and salt until smooth.

  6. Mix in the beaten eggs.

  7. Form the mixture into balls the size of a pigeon's egg.

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

  9. Stir in the browned flour mixture.

  10. Season the soup with wine and lemon juice.

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Calf's head
Supplies gelatin-rich flesh and bones that give the stock body and a rich mouthfeel.
Pig's feet
Add collagen that breaks down into gelatin, thickening the stock and giving it body.
Eggs
Bind the egg yolk and brain mixture so the balls hold their shape in the soup.
Browned flour
Thickens the soup slightly and adds a toasted, deeper flavor.
Sherry or madeira wine
Adds acidity and aromatic sweetness that rounds out the rich stock.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the egg yolk mixture, giving it a smooth texture.

The step that matters

Do not boil for more than 30 minutes on the second day. Prolonged boiling of the reheated soup can toughen the egg balls and break down the gelatin-based body, so gentle heating keeps texture and clarity.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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