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Soup

Mock Turtle or Calf's-head Soup

A soup made from calf's head and pig's feet, with forcemeat balls and sherry or Madeira wine added.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Mock Turtle or Calf's-head Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the head and feet

  1. In a large pot, place the cleaned calf's head and pig's feet.

  2. Cover with 1 gallon of water.

  3. Boil for 3 hours until the meat falls from the bones.

  4. Remove the calf's head.

  5. Continue boiling the pig's feet until the meat is tender.

  6. Carefully select enough fatty portions from the head and cheeks to fill a teacup and set aside to cool.

  7. Remove the brains and set aside.

  8. Chop the remaining meat and tongue finely.

  9. Season the chopped meat with salt, pepper, marjoram, thyme, cloves, mace, allspice, and nutmeg.

  10. Once the pig's feet are tender, remove the bones and leave the gelatinous meat in the pot.

Make the soup

  1. Boil everything together slowly for 2 more hours without removing the cover.

  2. Let the soup cool and set it aside until the next day.

  3. An hour before serving, reheat the stock.

  4. When boiling, strain the stock carefully.

  5. Cut the reserved meat into small squares and add to the soup.

Add forcemeat balls and finish

  1. To make forcemeat balls, mash the yolks of the hard-boiled eggs in a bowl, adding the brains, butter, and salt to moisten.

  2. Mix in the beaten eggs and form the mixture into balls the size of a pigeon's egg.

  3. Add the balls to the soup 5 minutes before serving.

  4. Stir in 1 tablespoon of browned flour mixed with a little cold water.

  5. Finish with the sherry or Madeira wine.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Thyme + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,077 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's head
Provides gelatin and rich meat that thickens and body the soup as it cooks.
Pig's feet
Release gelatin during long simmering, giving the stock a silky, full body.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Bind with beaten eggs and butter to form tender, cohesive forcemeat balls.
Beaten eggs
Bind the forcemeat mixture so the balls hold their shape in the soup.
Flour
Browned flour stirred in thickens the stock and adds a nutty, roasted colour.
Sherry or madeira wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth that brightens the rich, meaty broth.

The step that matters

Stirring in the browned flour mixed with cold water. Flour must be whisked into cold water first so it disperses without lumps, then stirred into the hot stock; adding it dry or to boiling liquid causes clumping and uneven thickening.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, marjoram, thyme, clove, allspice, nutmeg, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, marjoram, thyme, clove, allspice, nutmeg, 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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