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Mock Turtle Soup

A soup made from calf's head, stock, vegetables, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Soak the calf's head in cold water for 1 hour.

  2. Wash the calf's head clean.

  3. Boil the head in 6 quarts of cold water for 2 hours.

  4. Add the liver and lights.

  5. Tie the brains in a small cloth.

  6. Boil for 1.5 hours.

  7. Remove the head.

  8. Strain the liquid into a stone jar.

  9. Let the liquid cool overnight.

  10. Remove the fat from the stock.

Make the soup

  1. Combine 1 quart of stock and 1 quart of cold water with onions, carrots, turnips, celery, cloves, peppercorns, and salt.

  2. Boil slowly for 2 hours.

  3. Heat a little butter.

  4. Brown finely chopped onions, stirring constantly.

  5. Dredge in a little flour.

  6. Add small pieces of the calf's head and strained vegetables from the stock.

  7. Let it boil for 1 hour.

  8. Add 1 tablespoon of allspice for a darker 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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the soup as it cooks with the butter and onions.
Butter
Carries the browning of the onions and adds richness to the soup.
Onions
Browned onions add sweetness and deep colour to the soup.

The step that matters

Browning the onions with flour. Onions must brown evenly while stirred constantly; scorched onions taste bitter and darken the soup unevenly. Dredging with flour after browning lets it cook briefly so it thickens without a raw starchy taste.

Swap the allspice

The recipe marks allspice as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, carrot, turnip, celery, clove, butter, flour):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, carrot, turnip, celery, clove, butter, 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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