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Soup

Mock Turtle

A rich soup made from calf's head, veal and beef broth, Madeira wine, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and chive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 450 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Mock Turtle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Cut the calf's head in half and clean it well.

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

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

Make the soup

  1. Sauté shallot in butter, then add flour to thicken the gravy.

  2. Stir the gravy into the broth and bring to a boil, skimming carefully.

  3. Add the head and 1 pint of Madeira wine, then simmer until the meat is tender.

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

  5. Stir in mushroom ketchup and soy sauce.

  6. 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. Shallot + chivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together450 recipes

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

  2. Shallot + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together602 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  5. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 bones that give the soup its body and richness.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so the soup becomes smooth and full-bodied.
Madeira wine
Adds depth and a fortified, slightly sweet aroma to the simmered soup.
Mushroom ketchup
Contributes concentrated savoury, umami flavour to the finished soup.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich broth just before serving.

The step that matters

Skimming the broth when it comes to a boil. Skimming removes coagulated proteins and fat that rise to the surface. Leaving them in makes the soup cloudy, greasy and muddy in flavour.

Swap the basil

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, shallot, 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.

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