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Old-fasuiomed Mock Turtle

A rich broth made from calf's head, beef neck, ham, vegetables, and seasonings, thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Old-fasuiomed Mock Turtle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. Combine the calf's head and cold water in a large pot.

  2. Bring to a gentle boil and skim off impurities.

  3. Boil for 1.5 hours.

  4. Remove the head.

  5. Add the browned beef, ham, onions, celery, carrots, herbs, lemon rind, peppercorns, and salt.

  6. Simmer gently for 6-7 hours.

  7. Strain the stock.

  8. Cool the stock to solidify the fat on top.

Prepare the head

  1. Remove the skin and fat from the head.

  2. Cut the head into strips.

  3. Carve the tongue into strips or dice.

Finish the soup

  1. Combine the stock in a large pot.

  2. Bring the stock to a boil.

  3. Thicken with a mixture of butter and flour.

  4. Add mace, cayenne, and sherry, stirring until simmering for 1-2 minutes.

  5. Add the head back into the pot.

  6. Simmer for 1.25 to 1.5 hours, stirring often.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 body, giving the soup its rich, thick mouthfeel.
Neck of beef
Adds deep meaty flavour and gelatin to the stock as it simmers for hours.
Butter and flour
Flour thickens the stock into a smooth, velvety body; butter carries flavour and richness.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth that brightens the rich stock.
Onions
Break down during long simmering to add sweetness and savoury depth to the stock.

The step that matters

Cool the stock to solidify the fat on top. Fat left on the surface makes the soup greasy. Chilling lets the fat harden into a solid layer that can be lifted off cleanly before the stock is thickened and reheated.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, ham, onion, celery, carrot, flour):

  1. Avocadofits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Limefits about as well
  4. Coconutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, ham, onion, celery, carrot, flour. 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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