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Mock Turtle Soup

A hearty soup made from calf's head, ham, herbs, and stock, finished with wine, citrus, and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram 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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the calf's head

  1. Scald the calf's head with the skin on, remove the brain, tie it in a cloth, and boil for 1 hour.

  2. Remove the meat from the bones, cut it into small square pieces, and place in cold water.

  3. Put the meat into a stewpan, cover with stock, and boil gently for about 1 hour until tender.

Make the soup

  1. In another stewpan, melt the butter and add the diced ham, herbs, parsley, onions, shallots, mushrooms, and nearly 1 pint of stock; simmer slowly for 2 hours.

  2. Dredge in enough flour to absorb the butter, fill with the remaining stock, and add the wine; let it stew gently for 10 minutes.

  3. Rub the mixture through a tammy and add it to the calf's head; season with cayenne and salt as needed.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the juices of the orange and lemon, ground mace, and powdered sugar.

  2. Incorporate the force-meat balls and simmer for 6 minutes before serving hot.

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 + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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 meat and body that give the soup its rich, thick texture.
Butter
Carries the aromatics and, with flour, forms a roux that thickens the soup.
Flour
Absorbs the butter to form a roux that thickens the liquid.
Madeira or sherry
Adds acidity and depth of flavour while the wine stews into the soup.
Onions
Build a sweet, savoury base as they soften slowly in the fat.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, heavy broth.

The step that matters

Rubbing the mixture through a tammy. Pressing the cooked onions, ham and herbs through a fine sieve smooths the body of the soup. Skipping or rushing this leaves a gritty, uneven texture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, ham, parsley, lemon, thyme, marjoram, basil):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, ham, parsley, lemon, thyme, marjoram, basil. 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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