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Mock Turtle Soup

A soup made by stewing beef, veal, and calf head, then simmering with herbs and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the stock

  1. In a large pot, gently stew 4 pounds of beef in 1 gallon of water with carrots, onion, celery, herbs, mace, peppercorns, and salt until the meat falls apart.

  2. Strain the broth and pour it over 3 pounds of veal in a pot.

  3. Simmer until the veal is tender.

  4. Optionally stew the bones with the veal for extra flavor.

  5. Strain the soup through a fine sieve into a clean pan.

  6. Let it cool to remove the fat.

Prepare the calf's head

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

  2. Bone the calf's head.

  3. Roll the head with the tongue inside.

  4. Secure it with tape.

Finish and simmer

  1. Pour the soup over it.

  2. Bring the soup to a gentle boil.

  3. Skim off any foam.

  4. Simmer for 1 to 1.25 hours.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Beef + carrottop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef shin or neck
Breaks down into flavourful meat and gelatin that give the broth body and richness.
Veal knuckle or neck
Adds gelatin and depth, giving the stock a silky, full mouthfeel.
Calf's head
Provides gelatinous meat and skin that thicken the soup and give it its characteristic texture.
Carrots
Release sweetness and aromatic flavour into the stock as they cook.

The step that matters

Letting the soup cool to remove the fat. Fat floats and sets as it cools, so it can be lifted off cleanly; skipping this leaves a greasy, heavy broth.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, onion, celery, veal. 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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