Why it works: Lemon and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 887 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Mock Turtle Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the stock
Remove the fat from the cold stock.
Heat the stock.
Cut the best part of the skin into 2-inch squares. Set the skin squares aside along with the ears.
Dice the rest of the head into half-inch pieces.
Make the soup
Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a thick saucepan.
Add 1½ tablespoons of flour to the butter. Stir until the mixture is light brown.
Gradually add 1 quart of stock. Stir until the mixture is smooth.
Add the bay leaf, onion, carrot, and seasonings. Boil slowly for 30 minutes.
Strain the mixture. Add the strained mixture back to the gently boiling stock.
Remove any scum for a clear soup.
Reserve 1 quart of stock for another dish.
Add the diced calf's head to the soup.
Color the soup with caramel if desired.
Prepare the garnish and serve
Hard boil the eggs. Cool the eggs. Chop the yolks.
Place the yolks in a soup tureen.
Add the Madeira wine and the lemon juice to the yolks.
Pour the soup over the yolks.
Serve with thin slices of lemon.
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.
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Lemon + sagetop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together887 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Clove + sagetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together731 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + sagetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together480 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
- Butter
- Enriches the soup and, with flour, forms the roux that thickens it.
- Flour (in the method)
- Thickens the stock when cooked with butter into a roux.
- Eggs
- Chopped yolks in the tureen add richness and body to the finished soup.
- Madeira wine
- Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the yolks and soup.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the rich stock and yolks.
The step that matters
Stirring the flour and butter until light brown. The roux must cook long enough to lose its raw flour taste and thicken well, but not so long that it darkens too far and changes the soup's color and flavor.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, lemon, madeira wine, clove, carrot, sage):
- Shallotfits better
- Leekfits better
- Parsnipfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, lemon, madeira wine, clove, carrot, sage. 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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