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Mock Turtle

A soup made from turtle head, veal, onions, spices, and butter, finished with Madeira wine and fried brain cakes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Mock Turtle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turtle

  1. Clean the turtle head by scraping off the hair.

  2. Split the head in two, removing the brains.

  3. Boil the head until tender.

  4. Separate the meat from the bones and gristle.

  5. Cut the tongue and other parts into small pieces.

  6. Return the meat to the pot.

Make the soup

  1. Add the veal pieces.

  2. Boil steadily.

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

  4. Thicken the soup with browned flour.

  5. Add the butter.

  6. Just before serving, season with Madeira wine.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the brains into thin cakes.

  2. Add the brain cakes to the tureen before pouring in the soup or on top after 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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

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

  4. Onion + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 body of meat, gelatinous texture and rich flavor in the soup.
Veal
Adds meat richness and body to the broth as it simmers.
Onions
Build savory depth and sweetness as they soften into the soup.
Browned flour (in the method)
Thickens the soup and adds a toasted, nutty flavor.
Butter
Adds fat for smoothness, rounded flavor and a silky mouthfeel.
Madeira wine
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth when added near the end.

The step that matters

Boil steadily, then add the seasonings at the right time. Boiling steadily breaks down collagen in the head and veal into gelatin, giving body. Adding the aromatics half an hour before serving keeps their flavors fresh rather than dulled by long cooking.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, mace, clove, pepper, butter, madeira wine):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, mace, clove, pepper, butter, madeira wine. 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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