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Mock Turtle Soup, in the Oven

A hearty soup made from calf head, veal, beef, vegetables, lobster, oysters, and Madeira, simmered in the oven.

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, in the Oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the calf's head

  1. Wash the calf's head.

  2. Boil the calf's head in 6 quarts of water for 1 hour.

  3. Cut the meat into squares while still warm.

Make the broth

  1. In a stewpan, combine veal, beef, carrots, turnips, onions, and celery.

  2. Add 3 quarts of the broth from the calf's head.

  3. Stew gently for 4 hours.

  4. Strain the broth into a large jar.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the calf's head squares, white peppercorns, mace, salt, and anchovies to the jar.

  2. Stew in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for 2 hours.

  3. Transfer to a stewpan with the remaining broth.

  4. Add lobster meat, oysters, Madeira, and mushrooms or mushroom ketchup.

  5. Let it simmer for 30 minutes.

  6. Serve with quenelles.

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. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

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 meat that give the soup body and a rich texture.
Veal
Adds meaty flavour and body to the long-simmered stock.
Beef
Deepens the savoury flavour of the broth during slow stewing.
Oysters
Add a briny, savoury note and a delicate texture near the end.
Madeira
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the finished soup.
Lobster
Contributes sweet shellfish flavour and tender pieces of meat.

The step that matters

Strain the broth before adding the calf's head squares. Straining removes the fine solids and fat from the long stew, leaving a clear broth so the final soup stays clean and smooth.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, carrot, turnip, celery, onion, lobster. 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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