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Mock Turtle Soup, of Calf's Head

A hearty soup made from calf's head, ham, herbs, and broth, finished with Madeira or sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup, of Calf's Head

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the calf's head

  1. Scald the calf's head.

  2. Remove the brain.

  3. Tie the head in a cloth.

  4. Boil for 1 hour until the meat slips from the bone.

  5. Remove the meat.

  6. Save the broth.

  7. Cut the meat into small square pieces.

  8. Place the meat in cold water until cool.

  9. Transfer the meat to a stewpan.

  10. Cover with some broth.

  11. Boil until tender and set aside.

Make the soup

  1. Melt the butter.

  2. Add the ham.

  3. Add the fine herbs.

  4. Add the parsley.

  5. Add the onion.

  6. Pour in about 4 cups of the broth.

  7. Let it simmer for 2 hours.

  8. Dredge the mixture in flour.

  9. Add the remaining broth.

  10. Add the Madeira or sherry.

  11. Let it stew quietly for 10 minutes.

  12. Rub through a medium sieve.

Season and serve

  1. Add the calf's head pieces.

  2. Season with cayenne pepper.

  3. Season with coarse sea salt.

  4. Season with lemon juice.

  5. Season with mace (if using).

  6. Season with sugar.

  7. Add the prepared force meat balls.

  8. Serve hot after 5 minutes.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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 the meat and gelatin that give the soup its body and richness.
Butter
Fat that carries the aromatics and begins the base of the soup.
Flour
Dredged into the mixture to thicken the soup as it simmers.
Madeira or sherry
Adds wine acidity and aroma that brighten the rich broth.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty depth of flavour to the broth.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness.

The step that matters

Dredge the mixture in flour. Flour must be cooked into the melted butter and aromatics before liquid is added, or it clumps and leaves the soup lumpy and floury-tasting.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, parsley, butter, flour, sherry, pepper, lemon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, parsley, butter, flour, sherry, pepper, lemon. 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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