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Mock Turtle Soup

A soup made from a turtle head, beef, vegetables, and seasonings, simmered and strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and parsnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 590 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Soak the turtle head and tongue in saltwater for 1.5 hours.

  2. Place the head in a pot with 1 tablespoon salt and enough cold water to cover it.

  3. Simmer gently for 30 minutes.

  4. Remove the head and skim the pot.

Make the soup base

  1. Add the beef, onion, salt, bay leaves, peppercorns, carrots, turnips, celery, and parsnip to the pot.

  2. Break the bones of the head and add them to the pot with the beef and vegetables.

  3. Stew for 3 hours.

  4. Remove the bones and strain the liquid.

  5. Pound the vegetables, beef, and spices.

  6. Mix the pounded mixture with the strained liquid and simmer for 30 minutes.

  7. Strain again.

Finish the soup

  1. Return the gravy to the pot with the meat and skin of the head, cut into 2-inch pieces.

  2. Add 2 teaspoons salt and the mushrooms.

  3. Simmer for 3.5 hours, skimming as needed.

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. Turnip + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,097 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef
Provides rich meaty flavor and body as it stews into the broth.
Turtle head
Its bones and skin add gelatin, giving the soup body and a silky mouthfeel.
Carrots
Add sweetness and aromatic depth to the stock.
Button mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and savory depth to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Skimming during the long simmer. Fat and foam rise to the surface during extended simmering. Skimming them keeps the soup clear and prevents a greasy, cloudy broth.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, onion, carrot, turnip, celery, parsnip, 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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