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Mock Turtle Soup

A hearty soup made with calf's head, veal, beef, pickled pork, ham, onions, celery, herbs, and bay leaves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Clean the calf's head with the skin on.

  2. Blanch the calf's head.

  3. Remove the brains from the head.

Simmer the stock

  1. Place the head in a large pot with 8-9 quarts of spring water.

  2. Bring to a gentle boil, skim frequently, and simmer for 2 hours.

  3. Remove the bones from the head.

  4. Return the bones to the pot.

  5. Add veal, beef, pickled pork, ham, onions, celery, and herbs.

  6. Simmer gently for 3 hours, skimming regularly and adding stock as needed to maintain the liquid level.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Beef + porktop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,690 recipes

    Shared aroma: 12-methyltridecanal (tallowy, beefy).

  4. Celery + basiltop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together812 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

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 soup a rich, thick texture as it simmers.
Veal fillet
Adds meaty flavour and tenderness to the simmered stock.
Leg of beef
Contributes savoury, beefy depth and gelatin to the long-simmered broth.
Pickled pork
Adds salty, savoury flavour that seasons the soup as it cooks.
Onions
Build sweetness and aromatic depth in the stock.
Celery
Adds aromatic, vegetal flavour to the stock.

The step that matters

Skimming the simmering stock. Foam and fat rise to the surface during simmering and can cloud the soup and taste greasy. Skimming often keeps the broth clear and clean-flavoured, and a gentle simmer prevents the stock from boiling hard and emulsifying the fat.

Swap the basil

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, pork, ham, onion, celery, parsley):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Pepperfits better
  4. Basilthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, pork, ham, onion, celery, parsley. 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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