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Veal Mock Turtle Soup

A hearty soup made with calf head, feet, brain, vegetables, and seasonings, thickened with browned flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 957 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Veal Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Place the calf's head, ham or bacon, and calf's feet in a large pot with enough water to cover them.

  2. Boil slowly for 4 hours, skimming off any scum that rises.

  3. Remove the head.

  4. Let it cool overnight to skim off the fat.

  5. Remove the meat from the bones.

  6. Dice the meat.

  7. Return the diced meat to the pot.

  8. Reserve the more presentable parts of the head.

  9. Chop the brain.

  10. Slice the vegetables.

Finish the soup

  1. Add the brain and sliced vegetables to the soup along with the seasonings.

  2. Thicken the soup with 2 tablespoons of browned flour.

  3. Simmer gently for 1 hour.

  4. Add the juice of half a lemon when it boils.

  5. Skim if necessary.

  6. Incorporate force-meat balls and quenelles as desired.

  7. Add the remaining lemon, sliced thin.

  8. Let it boil once before serving.

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. Lemon + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

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

  2. Turnip + marjoramtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together367 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 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
Gives the stock body and gelatin as it simmers slowly over several hours.
Calf's feet
Release gelatin during long simmering, giving the soup a rich, silky body.
Browned flour
Thickens the soup, giving it body and a deeper, toasted flavor.
Lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the rich stock and balances its heaviness.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and savory aroma to the stock as they cook.

The step that matters

Skimming during the long boil. Scum and fat rising from the head and feet can cloud the stock and taste greasy. Skimming as it simmers keeps the soup clear and clean-flavored, and cooling overnight lets remaining fat solidify on top for easy removal.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, onion, turnip, potato, lemon, pepper, marjoram):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, onion, turnip, potato, lemon, pepper, marjoram. 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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