Skip to main content
Main

Mock Turtle, or Calf's Head Soup

A hearty soup made from calf's head, beef neck, ham, vegetables, herbs, and sherry, thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Mock Turtle, or Calf's Head Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head and stock

  1. Remove the brain from the calf's head and wash it thoroughly.

  2. Soak the head well.

  3. In a large pot, pour in 9 quarts of cold water and bring it to a gentle boil. Skim off any impurities.

  4. Boil the head for 1.5 hours.

  5. Remove the head and add 8 pounds of lightly browned neck of beef, ham, onions, celery, carrots, sweet herbs, lemon rind, peppercorns, and salt to the pot.

  6. Stew the mixture gently for 7 to 8 hours.

  7. Strain the stock and cool it to solidify the fat on top for easy removal.

Prepare the meat

  1. Remove the skin and fat from the head, cutting it into strips of 2 to 3 inches long and 1 inch wide.

  2. Cut the tongue similarly or into dice.

Make the soup

  1. In a large soup pot, pour in 4 to 5 quarts of the stock and bring it to a boil.

  2. Thicken the stock by mixing 4 ounces of butter with 4 ounces of flour.

  3. Add the mixture to the boiling stock along with mace and cayenne pepper. Stir well.

  4. Pour in 1/2 pint of sherry and simmer for 1 to 2 minutes.

  5. Add the prepared head back into the pot and let it stew gently for 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1.5 hours, stirring often and skimming off any scum.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 gelatinous meat and body that give the soup its rich texture.
Neck of beef
Adds deep beef flavor and gelatin to the stock during the long stew.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the stock into a smooth, velvety body.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich stock.

The step that matters

Skimming the stock. Impurities and fat that rise during boiling and stewing can cloud the stock and taste greasy, so skimming regularly keeps it clear and clean-flavored.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, ham, onion, celery, carrot, flour):

  1. Avocadofits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Limefits about as well
  4. Coconutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, ham, onion, celery, carrot, 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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipes