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Soup

Mock Turtle Soup

A clear soup made from calf head, veal knuckle, onions, butter, sage, and flour, set to gel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Remove the brains from the calf's head.

  2. Wash the head well.

  3. Soak the head in cold water for 1 hour.

  4. Place the head in a stew-pan with 6 quarts of cold water.

  5. Bring to a boil, skimming off any scum.

  6. Simmer for 1.5 hours.

Make the stock

  1. Remove the head and cut it into 1 to 1.5-inch pieces, including the tongue.

  2. Store the pieces in a deep pan and cover them with some of the cooking liquid to prevent drying.

  3. Add the bones and trimmings from the head to the stew-pan.

  4. Add 4 pounds of knuckle of veal to the stew-pan.

  5. Boil gently, covered, for 4 to 5 hours.

  6. Strain the soup into an earthenware pot.

  7. Let the soup cool.

  8. Refrigerate overnight.

  9. Remove the layer of fat from the top of the clear jelly the next day.

  10. Place the clear jelly in a stew-pan.

Make the thickening

  1. Peel the onions.

  2. Slice the onions into pieces.

  3. Fry the sliced onions in 2 ounces of butter until light brown.

  4. Add 2 tablespoons of chopped sage.

  5. Stir in 6 ounces of flour.

  6. Allow the mixture to brown slightly.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Onion + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Sage + flourtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Veal + sagetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together670 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Provides body and gelatin, giving the soup a rich, jellied texture when cooled.
Knuckle of veal
Adds gelatin and deep meaty flavour to the stock as it simmers for hours.
Onions
Build savoury sweetness and aroma as they soften and brown in the butter.
Butter
Carries the onion flavour and provides fat for browning the flour mixture.
Flour
Thickens the soup as it cooks with the fat and onions.
Green sage leaves
Adds a herbal, aromatic note that cuts through the richness of the stock.

The step that matters

Stirring in the flour. Flour added to hot fat must be stirred constantly, or it clumps and can scorch before it browns evenly. Cooking it briefly lets the raw starch taste fade and gives the thickening a nutty colour and flavour.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, butter, sage, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, butter, sage, flour. 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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