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Mock Turtle Soup

A soup made from calf's head, vegetables, herbs, and egg balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Thoroughly wash the calf's head and carefully remove the skin, tongue, and brains.

  2. Split the head and clean it thoroughly, then wash it in cold water.

  3. Place the bones in a soup kettle, lay the skin and tongue on top, and cover with cold water.

Make the stock

  1. Heat the kettle slowly to boiling, skimming off any scum that rises.

  2. Once the stock is clear, add the carrot, turnip, onion, bouquet of herbs, and salt.

  3. Cover and boil gently for 2 hours, then remove the head and tongue, wrapping them in a wet cloth.

  4. Continue boiling the stock for 4 more hours, keeping the kettle covered.

  5. Strain the stock and cool it as directed in the clear soup-stock recipe.

Finish the soup

  1. Once cool, remove the fat and dice the thinnest parts of the head.

  2. Add half a cup of egg balls and a cup of diced calf's head for each quart of soup.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 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 body of the soup, with gelatin from the bones and skin giving it richness.
Egg balls
Add soft, tender body and a mild richness to the finished soup.
Onion
Adds savory, aromatic depth to the stock as it simmers.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and aroma to the stock.

The step that matters

Skimming the stock as it heats. Scum rising during the first heating can cloud the stock and carry impurities into the broth. Removing it early keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, parsley, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, parsley, egg. 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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