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Mock Turtle Soup, of Calf's Head

A hearty soup made from calf's head, ham, herbs, and Madeira or sherry, finished with lemon and mace.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup, of Calf's Head

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Scald the calf's head, remove the brain, tie it in a cloth, and boil for 1 hour until the meat slips from the bone.

  2. Remove the head, save the broth, and cut the meat into small square pieces.

  3. Place the meat pieces in cold water to cool.

  4. In a stewpan, combine the meat with some of the broth and boil until tender.

  5. Set the tender meat aside.

Make the soup

  1. In another stewpan, melt the butter and add the ham, fine herbs, parsley, and onion.

  2. Pour in 1 pint of broth and simmer for 2 hours.

  3. Dredge the mixture in a small quantity of flour, then add the remaining broth and the Madeira or sherry.

  4. Stew quietly for 10 minutes.

  5. Rub the mixture through a medium sieve.

  6. Add the calf's head pieces.

  7. Season with cayenne pepper, coarse sea salt, lemon juice, mace (if using), and sugar.

  8. Add the prepared force meat balls.

  9. Serve hot after 5 minutes.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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 gelatinous meat and body that give the soup its rich, thick texture.
Butter
Fat that carries the flavour of the ham, herbs and onion into the base.
Flour
Thickens the soup slightly so it holds together and feels fuller.
Madeira or sherry
Adds acidity and fortified wine depth that brightens the rich broth.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the richness.
Sugar
Adds a little sweetness that rounds out the sharp and savoury notes.

The step that matters

Dredge the mixture in flour before adding the liquid. Flour stirred into hot fat first coats the particles and cooks out its raw taste, so the broth thickens smoothly without lumps.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, parsley, butter, flour, sherry, pepper, lemon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, parsley, butter, flour, sherry, pepper, lemon. 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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