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Mock Turtle Soup

A broth made from calf head and pig feet, flavored with herbs, vegetables, Madeira, lemon, and a roux.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 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 and stock

  1. Wash and clean the calf's head and pigs' feet thoroughly.

  2. Reserve the brains and tongue for another dish.

  3. Remove the palate and place the head and feet in a stock pot with 1 gallon of cold water.

  4. Skim off the scum as it rises.

  5. Add the bunch of fine herbs, carrots, onions, and celery to the pot.

  6. Simmer until the meat comes off the bones.

  7. Remove the best parts and press them until cold.

  8. Discard the bones.

  9. Return the remaining meat to the pot and simmer for 3 hours.

  10. Strain the stock.

Make the soup

  1. In a separate pan, melt the butter with the mace, sugar, and a little salt and pepper.

  2. Add the strained vegetables to the butter mixture.

  3. Rub through a tamis.

  4. Combine this mixture with the strained soup.

  5. Add Madeira, lemon juice, and a little thin white roux.

  6. Ensure the soup is not too thick and has a greenish color.

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. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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, so the stock thickens and feels rich when cooled.
Pigs' feet
Add gelatin and body to the stock, giving it a silky, full texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying the flavour of the mace and sugar.
Carrots
Add sweetness and body, thickening the soup when rubbed through a tamis.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and depth to the stock as they cook down.
Madeira
Adds wine acidity and a deep, aromatic finish to the soup.
Thin white roux
Thickens the soup lightly, adjusting its body as needed.

The step that matters

Thickness after adding the roux. Roux thickens through starch swelling in hot liquid. Adding too much, or simmering too long, makes the soup heavy and pasty, so the soup should be checked and kept light.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, onion, celery, butter, sugar, lemon, clove):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, onion, celery, butter, sugar, lemon, clove. 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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