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White Mock Turtle Soup

A soup made with calf's head, veal, ham, vegetables, herbs, butter, flour, cream, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

White Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Bone the calf's head and cut up the knuckle of veal.

  2. In a buttered stewpan, combine veal, ham, salt, carrot, turnip, onions, celery, leek, parsley, bay leaf, and ½ pint of water.

  3. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter is covered with a white glaze.

  4. Add 6 quarts of water and the calf's head, then simmer for 2.5 hours until tender.

  5. Remove the head from the pot.

  6. Press the head between two dishes.

  7. Strain the stock through a fine sieve into a basin.

Make the soup

  1. In another stewpan, melt ¼ pound of butter with thyme, basil, marjoram, and bay leaf until hot.

  2. Add 6 ounces of flour to form a roux, stirring over high heat for a few minutes until white.

  3. Remove the roux from heat to cool.

  4. Add the stock to the roux and stir until boiling.

  5. Skim off the fat.

  6. Strain the mixture into another stewpan.

  7. Cut the head into 1-inch square pieces.

  8. Add the pieces to the soup, seasoning with cayenne pepper.

  9. Once hot, stir in ⅓ cup of cream.

  10. Serve in a tureen.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's head
Provides gelatinous body and meaty texture to the finished soup.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth body when cooked into a roux.
Butter
Enriches flavor and carries herbs, and forms the base of the roux.
Cream
Adds richness and a softer, rounder mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and savory depth to the stock as it simmers.

The step that matters

Cooking the roux. Roux must be cooked long enough to lose its raw flour taste, but stirred well so it does not scorch or lump. Cooling it before adding stock helps keep the thickening smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, carrot, turnip, celery, leek, parsley, butter):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, carrot, turnip, celery, leek, parsley, 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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