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Mock Turtle

A hearty soup made from calf's head, bones, gravy, Madeira wine, herbs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Clean the calf's head well and cut it in half.

  2. Half-boil the head, remove the meat in square bits, and break the bones.

Make the soup

  1. Boil the bones in veal and beef broth for richness.

  2. Fry shallots in butter, add flour to thicken the gravy, and stir into the broth.

  3. Add the head and Madeira wine, then simmer until the meat is tender.

  4. Before serving, add chives, parsley, Cayenne pepper, and salt to taste.

  5. Squeeze lemon juice into the tureen and pour the soup over it.

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. Basil + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Basil + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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 bones that give the soup its body and richness.
Butter
Carries the fat for frying the shallots, adding richness and flavour to the base.
Flour
Thickens the gravy and broth into a smoother, more velvety soup.
Madeira wine
Adds depth, sweetness and aroma to the simmered soup.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich soup.

The step that matters

Simmering the head until tender. Collagen in the calf's head and bones converts slowly into gelatin during long, gentle simmering. Rushing it or boiling hard leaves the meat tough and the broth thin.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, basil, marjoram, thyme, pepper, flour, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, basil, marjoram, thyme, pepper, flour, butter. 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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