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Mock Turtle Soup

A hearty soup made from calf's foot, ham, vegetables, and seasonings, thickened with cornflour and finished with sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Clean and scald the calf's foot, then divide it.

  2. Place the foot, ham, onion, water, thyme, parsley, garlic, carrot, and turnip in a pan.

  3. Bring to a boil, remove the scum, and let it simmer for four hours with the cover on.

  4. Strain the stock and place the foot on a dish.

  5. Once the stock is cold, remove the fat.

Finish the soup

  1. Cut the meat from the foot into small pieces and add it back to the stock.

  2. Simmer gently for one hour.

  3. Mix the cornflour with two tablespoons of cold stock or water until smooth, then add to the soup.

  4. Bring to a boil while stirring continuously.

  5. Just before serving, add the sherry and a few drops of browning, if using.

  6. Season to taste with pepper and coarse sea salt.

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. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's foot
Supplies gelatine and body, so the stock becomes rich and slightly thick.
Cornflour
Thickens the soup as it heats, giving it a smooth, lightly glossy body.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich stock just before serving.
Lean ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour to the stock during the long simmer.
Onion
Builds the savoury, aromatic base of the stock.

The step that matters

Cool the stock before removing the fat. Fat floats and sets solid when the stock is cold, so it can be lifted off cleanly. Skimming while hot leaves greasy droplets behind.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, onion, thyme, parsley, garlic, carrot, turnip):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Winter savoryfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, onion, thyme, parsley, garlic, carrot, turnip. 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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