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Mock Turtle Soup

A hearty soup made from a turtle head, beef, vegetables, herbs, and mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 590 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Soak the turtle head and tongue in saltwater for 1.5 hours.

  2. Place the head in a pot with 1 tablespoon salt and enough cold water to cover it.

  3. Simmer gently for 30 minutes, then remove the head and skim the pot.

Make the stock

  1. Add the beef, onion with cloves, salt, bay leaves, peppercorns, carrots, turnips, and celery to the pot.

  2. Cut the meat and skin from the head, break the bones, and add them to the pot with the beef and vegetables.

  3. Add the sweet herbs and parsnip, then stew for 3 hours.

  4. Remove the bones, strain the liquid, and pound the vegetables, beef, and spices.

  5. Mix the pounded mixture with the liquid and simmer for another 30 minutes.

  6. Strain through a fine sieve and return the gravy to the pot.

Finish and serve

  1. Cut the meat and skin from the head into 2-inch pieces and add to the pot with 2 teaspoons salt and mushrooms.

  2. Simmer for 3.5 hours, skimming carefully 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. Turnip + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Turtle head
Supplies gelatinous meat, skin and bones that give the soup its body and rich texture.
Beef
Adds deep meaty flavour and collagen that thickens the stock as it stews.
Onion
Builds savoury sweetness and aromatic depth as it cooks slowly in the stock.
Carrots
Contribute gentle sweetness and body to the stock during long simmering.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savoury background flavour to the stock.
Button mushrooms
Add earthy umami flavour and a tender texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Skimming the pot during the long simmer. Proteins and fats rise to the surface as foam and scum; removing them keeps the broth clear and prevents a greasy or cloudy taste.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, onion, carrot, turnip, celery, parsnip, mushroom):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, carrot, turnip, celery, parsnip, 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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