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Soup

Mock Turtle

A soup made from turtle head, veal, onions, herbs, and Madeira wine, finished with fried brains.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mock Turtle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Clean the turtle head by scraping off the hair and split it in two, removing the brains.

  2. Boil the head until tender, then remove it from the water and separate the meat from the bones.

  3. Cut the tongue and other parts into small pieces and return the meat to the pot.

Make the soup

  1. Add the veal pieces and boil steadily.

  2. Half an hour before serving, add the chopped onions, thyme, parsley, mace, cloves, salt, and red pepper.

  3. Thicken the soup with browned flour and stir in the butter.

  4. Season with Madeira wine just before serving.

Finish and serve

  1. Fry the brains into thin cakes and add them to the soup just before serving or on top.

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  3. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Turtle head
Provides the main meat and gelatinous body that gives the soup its rich texture.
Fat veal
Adds richness and tender meat that enriches the broth as it simmers.
Silver onions
Build savory depth and sweetness as they soften into the broth.
Browned flour
Thickens the soup and adds a toasted, nutty flavor.
Butter
Adds fat and a smooth, rounded mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Madeira wine
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth when added near the end.

The step that matters

Thickening with browned flour. Flour must be added to simmering liquid in a smooth, well-mixed way, or it forms lumps. Stirring in the butter after thickening keeps the soup glossy and smooth.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, onion, thyme, parsley, clove, pepper, flour):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, thyme, parsley, clove, pepper, flour. 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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