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Mock-turtle Soup

A hearty soup made from calf head, brains, ham, herbs, and Madeira wine, simmered for two hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Clean and wash the calf's head.

  2. Split the head in two.

  3. Save the brains.

  4. Boil the head in plenty of water until tender.

Make the soup

  1. In a stew pan, fry the ham, parsley, thyme, leeks, cloves, black pepper, and butter until browned.

  2. Add the water from boiling the head to the stew pan.

  3. Cut the meat from the head into neat square pieces.

  4. Add the meat pieces to the soup.

  5. Stir in the Madeira wine, lemon slices, Cayenne pepper, and salt to taste.

  6. Let the soup simmer gently for two hours.

  7. Skim the soup clear and serve.

Make the brain balls

  1. Pour hot water over the brains in a stew pan.

  2. Heat the brains for a few minutes.

  3. Chop the brains with parsley, salt, pepper, flour, butter, and a beaten egg.

  4. Form small balls from the chopped brains.

  5. Drop the balls into the soup fifteen minutes 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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Thyme + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together360 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  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. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 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 the gelatinous meat and body that gives the soup its rich, thick texture.
Butter
Fat that carries flavour and browns the aromatics, adding richness to the soup.
Leeks
Aromatic base that softens during frying and adds a mild, savoury sweetness.
Madeira wine
Adds acidity and fortified sweetness that deepens the soup's flavour.
Brains
Soft, creamy meat that, bound with egg and flour, forms delicate dumplings.
Egg (in the method)
Binds the chopped brains so they hold together as balls in the soup.

The step that matters

Simmer gently and skim the soup. A hard boil makes the soup cloudy and can toughen the meat, so keep it at a gentle simmer and skim off foam to keep it clear.

Swap the leek

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekthe original
  4. Turnipfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, parsley, thyme, clove, pepper, butter, 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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