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Alderman’s Mock Turtle Pie

A savory pie made with calf head, tongue, brain cakes, forcemeat, egg balls, calves' feet stock, spinach, and pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and spinach are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,400 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Alderman’s Mock Turtle Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the components

  1. Make a rich hash from the calf's head, cutting pieces 2.5 to 3 inches long and 1.75 to 2 inches wide.

  2. Slice the tongue and cut into large shapes.

  3. Prepare brain cakes, forcemeat, and egg balls as per the referenced recipes.

Make the stock

  1. Make a strong stock with the calves' feet, seasoning with soup herbs, salt, and black pepper.

  2. Simmer until the meat falls from the bones.

  3. Strain the stock through a coarse sieve to obtain a thick stock.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a deep pie dish with rich pie pastry.

  2. Arrange the hash, egg and meat balls, brain cakes, and chopped spinach in the dish.

  3. Pour enough stock to fill the dish.

  4. Cover with pastry.

  5. Bake.

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. Pepper + spinachtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Egg + spinachtop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,323 recipes

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

  3. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Calf's head
Forms the main meaty hash, giving body and savoury richness to the filling.
Calves' feet
Their collagen gives the stock body and a gelling quality as it cools.
Pie pastry
Encloses the filling and bakes into a crisp, golden crust that holds the juices.
Brain cakes
Soft, delicate pieces that add texture contrast against the firmer meats.
Spinach
Adds a green leafy element and moisture to the filling.

The step that matters

Strain the stock through a coarse sieve. Straining removes small bone and tissue fragments so the stock sets smoothly and the filling stays clear and tender rather than gritty.

Swap the spinach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachthe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Chivefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper. 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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