Mock-Turtle Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the calf's head
Remove the brains from the calf's head and boil them separately in salt and water.
Wash the head in cold spring water and place it in a large pot covered with cold water.
Add a handful of salt and bring to a boil, skimming off any scum.
Boil for 20 minutes.
Discard the water and place the head back in fresh hot water.
Cook and finish
Boil until the meat is tender but not overcooked.
Set aside the soup meat to cool.
Cut the cooled meat into dice, including some tongue.
Add the diced meat to the broth from the calf's head and veal.
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
What each ingredient does
- Calf's head
- Provides the meat, gelatin and body for the soup.
- Veal knuckle
- Adds rich flavour and gelatin to the broth.
The step that matters
Boiling the meat until tender but not overcooked. Boiling too hard or too long toughens and dries the meat as its proteins contract, while stopping too early leaves connective tissue unrendered, so the meat stays chewy and the broth thin.
“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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