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Mock Turtle Soup Stock

A clear calf head stock flavored with carrot, turnip, onion, herbs, spices, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup Stock

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Choose a fresh calf's head with clear white skin.

  2. Remove all hairs and wipe with a clean damp cloth.

  3. Lay the head on its face, cut from the throat to the lower jaw, and carefully remove the skin, keeping it whole.

  4. Soak in cold water.

  5. Remove the tongue whole.

  6. Soak it in cold water.

  7. Cut out the portion of the head between the ears and above the eyes with a sharp meat saw, taking out the brain carefully.

  8. Soak the brain in salted cold water.

  9. Cut the head in half, remove the nasal lining, and scald it.

Make the stock

  1. Place it in the bottom of a soup kettle.

  2. Roll the tongue in the skin, tie it loosely with twine, and place it on the bones.

  3. Cover with 8 quarts of cold water.

  4. Bring to a boil slowly, skimming off the scum.

  5. Once clear, move to the side of the fire to simmer.

  6. Add the carrot, turnip, onion, mace, allspice, bay leaf, nutmeg, bouquet of celery, parsley, thyme, savory, tarragon, lemon rind, salt, and cayenne pepper.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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-rich bones, meat and skin that give the stock body and a rich mouthfeel.
Carrot
Adds gentle sweetness and aromatic depth to the simmering stock.
Turnip
Contributes mild sweetness and earthy flavour to the stock.
Onion
Releases sugars and savoury flavour as it simmers, rounding out the stock.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil slowly, skimming off the scum. Starting with cold water and heating gently lets proteins and impurities rise as scum that can be skimmed off. Boiling hard too early emulsifies them into the liquid, leaving the stock cloudy and less clear.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, onion, clove, allspice, nutmeg, celery):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, onion, clove, allspice, nutmeg, celery. 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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