Skip to main content
Soup

Mock Turtle

A soup made from calf's head, broth, Madeira wine, herbs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Tarragon and chive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 589 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Mock Turtle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

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

  2. Half boil the head, then remove the meat in square bits.

  3. Break the bones and boil them in veal and beef broth for richness.

Make the gravy

  1. Fry shallots in butter, then add flour to thicken the gravy.

  2. Stir the gravy into the broth and boil for 1-2 minutes.

  3. Carefully skin the broth, then add the head and Madeira wine.

  4. Simmer until the meat is tender.

Season and serve

  1. Ten minutes before serving, add basil, tarragon, chives, parsley, Cayenne pepper, and salt to taste.

  2. Add mushroom ketchup and soy sauce.

  3. 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. Tarragon + chivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together589 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Basil + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together326 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  3. Basil + chivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Flour + chivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,168 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Beef + chivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together304 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 skin that give the soup its body and richness.
Butter
Carries the shallots and softens their flavour before the flour is added.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so the broth becomes a body-rich soup.
Madeira wine
Adds sweetness and depth, with acidity that balances the rich broth.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, heavy broth just before serving.

The step that matters

Skimming the broth before adding the head. Carefully skimming removes fat and impurities that would otherwise make the soup greasy and cloudy, so the flavour stays clean.

Swap the basil

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, butter, flour, madeira wine, tarragon, chive):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Basilthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, butter, flour, madeira wine, tarragon, chive. 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.

You might also like

Indian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and SpinachIndian Spiced Potato Soup with Tofu and Spinach448 recipesClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd SoupClear Carrot and Bottle Gourd Soup65 recipesMock Bisque SoupMock Bisque Soup51 recipesCream of Asparagus SoupCream of Asparagus Soup42 recipes