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Calf's Head, Mock Turtle Soup of

A soup made from calf's head, stock, herbs, forcemeat balls, and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 ↓

Calf's Head, Mock Turtle Soup of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat

  1. Remove the brains from the calf's head, wash it in 2–3 waters, and boil gently for 1½ hours.

  2. Remove the skin, cut the head and flesh into 1½-inch square pieces, and place them in cold water.

  3. Drain and put the pieces into a saucepan, cover with stock, and simmer gently for another 1½ hours.

Make the broth

  1. In a separate pot, combine 3 quarts of stock, thyme, marjoram, bay leaves, parsley, whole pepper, coarse sea salt, onions with cloves, celery, and mushroom ketchup. Simmer slowly for 2 hours.

  2. Strain the liquid, thicken it with flour mixed with a little cold water, and add gradually to the meat saucepan.

Make the forcemeat balls

  1. To make forcemeat balls, mix brains, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, nutmeg, parsley, butter, and eggs. Form into nutmeg-sized balls, fry in boiling oil, and drain before adding to the soup.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in sherry, forcemeat balls, hard-boiled egg yolks, and lemon juice. Simmer for a few minutes and serve.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Marjoram + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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 gelatin-rich meat and skin that give the soup its body and mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the strained broth so it coats the meat and spoon evenly.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Add richness and a soft, crumbly texture to the finished soup.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth that brightens the rich meat broth.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that balances the richness of the broth and meat.
Brains
Bind with breadcrumbs and eggs to give the forcemeat balls a tender, creamy interior.

The step that matters

Thickening the broth with flour. Flour must be mixed smooth with cold water before it goes into the liquid; otherwise it clumps. Adding it gradually lets it disperse evenly so the broth thickens without lumps.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (thyme, marjoram, parsley, pepper, clove, celery, mushroom):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against thyme, marjoram, parsley, pepper, clove, celery, mushroom. 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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