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Mock Turtle

A rich soup made from calf's head, egg yolks, ham, broth, Madeira wine, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and beef are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,784 recipes. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

Mock Turtle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Clean the calf's head and cut it in half.

  2. Half boil the head, then remove the meat in square bits.

  3. Break the bones and boil them in veal and beef broth for richness.

Make the soup

  1. Fry shallots in butter, then add flour to thicken the gravy.

  2. Stir the gravy into the broth and boil once or twice.

  3. Add the meat back into the broth with Madeira wine and simmer until tender.

  4. Ten minutes before serving, add basil, tarragon, chives, parsley, Cayenne pepper, and salt to taste.

  5. Stir in mushroom ketchup and soy sauce.

  6. Squeeze lemon juice into the tureen and pour the soup over it.

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. Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Ham + beeftop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,729 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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
Provides gelatin and meat that give the soup body and a rich, savoury texture.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so it coats the meat and broth evenly.
Butter
Carries the shallot flavour and adds richness when frying the base.
Madeira wine
Adds sweetness and depth of aroma as the meat simmers.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich broth just before serving.
Egg yolks
Adds richness and body to the soup.

The step that matters

Simmering the meat until tender. The head meat and gelatin need slow, gentle simmering to become tender and release body into the broth. Boiling hard can toughen the meat and cloud the soup.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, ham, veal, beef, butter, flour, madeira wine):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, ham, veal, beef, butter, flour, madeira 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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