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Mock-turtle Soup

A hearty soup made with calf head, beef, calf feet, ham, vegetables, herbs, and a Madeira sauce thickened with flour and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 28 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery 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 ↓

Mock-turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Scald the calf's head with the skin on.

  2. Remove the horny part and cut it into 2-inch pieces. Wash and dry the pieces.

  3. Place them in a stewpan with 4 quarts of broth.

Make the stock

  1. In a separate pot, combine beef, calf's feet, onion, carrots, turnip, ham, celery, cloves, pepper, sweet herbs, lemon peel, truffles, and 8 quarts of water.

  2. Stew until the broth reduces to 4 quarts.

  3. Strain and add to the stewpan.

Season and finish

  1. Chop together marjoram, savory, thyme, and parsley. Add to the stewpan.

  2. Add ground cloves, mace, cayenne pepper, chopped green onions, shallot, and mushrooms.

  3. Stir in ½ pint of Madeira.

  4. Gently stew until reduced to 2 quarts.

  5. Heat a little broth. Mix in flour until smooth. Add 2 egg yolks.

  6. Stir over gentle heat until near boiling. Pour this mixture into the soup while stirring.

  7. Let it all stew together for an hour or more.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 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 head
Provides gelatin and body, giving the soup a rich, thick texture as it stews.
Calf's feet
Adds gelatin, which thickens the broth and gives it a silky mouthfeel.
Beef
Contributes savoury meaty flavour to the long-simmered stock.
Flour
Thickens the soup as it heats, giving it a smoother, heavier body.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the soup when gently heated, adding richness and body.
Madeira
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the reduced stock.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk and flour mixture. If the soup boils after the egg yolks go in, the yolks can curdle and turn grainy. Heating gently while stirring keeps the liaison smooth and creamy.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, carrot, turnip, ham, celery, pepper. 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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