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Turtle Soup, Mock

A hearty stew of veal, beef, and calf head simmered with onions, butter, and Madeira.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Turtle Soup, Mock

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In a large stewpan, combine veal, beef, butter, onions, and bouquet garni.

  2. Cook over medium heat until lightly browned.

  3. Dredge in flour, then add stock and Madeira, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  4. Bring to a boil, then add the boned calf's head and simmer for 3 hours.

  5. Strain the broth and simmer for an additional hour, skimming frequently.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the head, cut it into 1-inch squares, and return it to the soup before serving.

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

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

  2. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Veal + beeftop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the broth as it cooks, giving the soup body.
Butter
Carries the flavour of the onions and meats and helps them brown.
Calf's head
Adds gelatin, which gives the soup a rich, silky body.
Madeira
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the broth.

The step that matters

Dredging the meat in flour before adding liquid. Flour coating on browned meat dissolves into the stock and thickens it evenly. Adding liquid without first coating and cooking the flour can leave lumps and a thin, starchy-tasting broth.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, butter, flour, pepper. 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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