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Mock Turtle Soup

A hearty soup made from calf's head, ham, herbs, stock, wine, and force-meat balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the calf's head

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

  2. Remove the brain.

  3. Tie the head in a cloth.

  4. Boil for 1 hour.

  5. Remove the meat from the bones.

  6. Cut it into small square pieces.

  7. Place in cold water.

  8. Put the meat into a stewpan. Cover with stock.

  9. Boil gently for about 1 hour until tender.

Make the sauce

  1. In another stewpan, melt the butter.

  2. Add the diced ham, herbs, parsley, onions, shallots, mushrooms, and nearly 1 pint of stock.

  3. Simmer slowly for 2 hours.

  4. Sprinkle in enough flour to absorb the butter.

  5. Add the remaining stock and the wine.

  6. Let it stew gently for 10 minutes.

  7. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.

  8. Combine it with the calf's head.

Season and serve

  1. Season with cayenne, salt, lemon juice, orange juice, mace, and sugar.

  2. Add the force-meat balls.

  3. Simmer for 5 minutes before serving hot.

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 + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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 body that give the soup its rich, thick texture.
Butter
Melted fat that carries the flavour of the aromatics and is thickened with flour.
Flour
Absorbs the butter and thickens the sauce so it becomes smooth and body-rich.
Madeira or sherry
Adds fortified-wine depth and acidity that balances the richness of the broth.
Onions
Build sweetness and savoury depth as they soften in the butter and stock.
Lean ham
Adds salty, smoky meaty flavour to the base of the sauce.

The step that matters

Rubbing the mixture through a fine sieve. Pushing the cooked onions, ham and herbs through a fine sieve breaks them down and smooths the sauce, so it stays velvety rather than gritty or lumpy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, ham, parsley, lemon, thyme, marjoram, basil):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, ham, parsley, lemon, thyme, marjoram, basil. 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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