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Mock Turtle Soup

A soup made by simmering calf's head and veal knuckle, then straining the broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Veal and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,841 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Remove the brains from the calf's head and clean it thoroughly, especially the nostrils and ears.

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

  3. Place the head in a stew-pan with 6 quarts of cold water and bring to a boil, skimming off any scum.

  4. Let it simmer for 1.5 hours.

  5. Remove the head from the pot.

  6. Cool the head.

  7. Cut the head into 1 to 1.5 inch pieces.

  8. Cut the tongue into smaller pieces.

  9. Store the meat in a deep pan.

  10. Cover the meat with some of the broth to prevent drying.

Make the broth

  1. Add the bones and trimmings of the head and the knuckle of veal to the broth in the stew-pan.

  2. Bring the broth to a gentle boil.

  3. Cover the pot.

  4. Simmer for 4 to 5 hours.

  5. Strain the soup into an earthenware pan.

  6. Let the strained soup cool.

  7. Stir the soup occasionally while cooling.

  8. The next morning, remove the layer of fat from the top.

  9. Place the clear jelly into a stew-pan.

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. Veal + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,841 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's head
Provides gelatinous skin, bones and meat that give the soup its body and rich texture.
Knuckle of veal
Adds bone and connective tissue that release gelatin, thickening the broth as it simmers.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum at the first boil. Impurities rising from the head during the first boil cloud the broth and add off-flavours if not removed. Skimming keeps the finished soup clear and clean-tasting.

“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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