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Mock Turtle Soup

A clear soup made with calf's head, veal, beef, vegetables, Madeira or sherry, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat and vegetables

  1. Melt the butter in a stock pot.

  2. Remove fat and marrow from the meat.

  3. Cut the meat into pieces.

  4. Chop the vegetables.

  5. Add the meat, vegetables, seasoning, and 1 pint of water to the stock pot.

  6. Cook slowly, stirring occasionally, until the bottom is covered with a light brown glaze.

Make the stock

  1. Scald and bone the calf's head.

  2. Add the calf's head to the stock pot.

  3. Fill the pot with 2½ quarts of water.

  4. Simmer for 2½ hours, skimming carefully.

  5. Remove the head.

  6. Place the head between two flat plates with a weight on top until cold.

  7. Allow the remaining stock to simmer for 6 hours.

  8. Strain the stock through a sieve.

  9. Remove all the fat from the stock the next day.

Finish the soup

  1. Clarify the stock as you would for clear soup.

  2. Cut the flexible parts of the head into square pieces.

  3. Add the pieces to the clarified soup.

  4. Heat the soup.

  5. Season with cayenne and salt.

  6. Add the Madeira or sherry.

  7. Add the lemon juice.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Lemon + carrottop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 body, giving the finished soup its rich, thick texture.
Knuckle of veal
Adds gelatin and meaty flavor to the stock, building body as it simmers.
Shin of beef
Contributes deep meaty flavor and gelatin to the long-simmered stock.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock as it cooks down.
Madeira or sherry
Adds fortified wine aroma and a sweet, nutty depth to the finished soup.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich stock and balances its savory flavor.

The step that matters

Skimming the stock during the first simmer. Skimming removes coagulated proteins and fat that would otherwise cloud the stock and make the soup greasy, so careful skimming keeps it clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, veal, beef, onion, pepper, carrot, butter):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Plumfits about as well
  3. Grapefits about as well
  4. Mangofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, veal, beef, onion, pepper, carrot, butter. 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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