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Soup

Imitation of Mock-turtle

A savory soup made from veal, calf's feet, and spices, flavored with walnut and mushroom ketchup, sherry, and served with eggs and forcemeat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Imitation of Mock-turtle

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the stock

  1. In a pan, combine the veal, cow heels or calf's feet, onions, cloves, peppercorns, allspice, mace, and sweet herbs.

  2. Cover with water and tie a thick paper over the pan.

  3. Bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven for 3 hours.

Prepare and serve

  1. Once cooled, remove the fat and cut the meat and feet into 1‑inch square pieces.

  2. Remove bones and coarse parts, then warm the meat with walnut ketchup, mushroom ketchup, sherry or Madeira, mushroom powder, and the meat jelly.

  3. Heat until hot, adjust seasoning if needed, and serve with hard-boiled eggs, forcemeat balls, a squeeze of lemon, and soy sauce.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  3. Allspice + walnuttop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together553 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Allspice + macetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Clove + walnuttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Provides meat and collagen that give the soup body and a rich, savoury flavour.
Cow heels or calf's feet
Their gelatin thickens the broth and gives it a silky, jellied texture.
Sherry or madeira wine
Adds acidity and a sweet, fortified depth to the finished soup.
Walnut ketchup
Contributes concentrated savoury, slightly tangy flavour that deepens the broth.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds umami and earthy savouriness that rounds out the broth.

The step that matters

Baking the stock slowly and covered. A low, covered bake draws gelatin and flavour out of the bones and meat without boiling, giving a clear, well-set broth. Too much heat would make it cloudy and greasy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, onion, clove, allspice, walnut, ketchup, mushroom):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, onion, clove, allspice, walnut, ketchup, mushroom. 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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