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Old-fashioned Mock Turtle

A hearty soup made from calf's head, beef neck, ham, vegetables, herbs, and sherry, thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot 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 ↓

Old-fashioned Mock Turtle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

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

  2. Wash and soak the head well.

  3. Combine the head and 9 quarts of cold water in a large pot.

  4. Bring to a gentle boil and skim off any impurities.

  5. Boil the head for 1.5 hours.

  6. Remove the head from the pot.

Make the stock

  1. In the same pot, add 8 pounds of lightly browned neck of beef, 3-4 slices of ham, onions, celery, carrots, savory herbs, lemon rind, peppercorns, and salt.

  2. Add the bones and fragments from the head.

  3. Stew gently for 6-7 hours.

  4. Strain the stock and cool it to allow the fat to solidify on top for easy removal.

  5. Remove the skin and fat from the head.

  6. Cut the tongue into strips or dice it.

Finish the soup

  1. In a large soup pot, combine 4-5 quarts of stock and bring to a boil.

  2. Thicken the stock with a mixture of 4 ounces of butter and 4 ounces of flour.

  3. Add mace and cayenne pepper, adjusting to taste.

  4. Stir in 1/2 cup of sherry.

  5. Add the head back into the pot.

  6. Let it stew gently for 1.25 to 1.5 hours, stirring often.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's head
Provides gelatin and meat that give the soup body and a rich texture.
Neck of beef
Adds deep beefy flavour and gelatin to the stock during long stewing.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the stock into a smooth, velvety body.
Onions, celery and carrots
Build the aromatic base that gives the stock its savoury sweetness.
Sherry
Adds acidity and a warm aroma that brightens the rich stock.

The step that matters

Thickening the stock with butter and flour. Flour must be cooked into the butter and whisked into hot stock to avoid lumps and a raw starchy taste; the thickened soup then needs gentle stewing so the starch sets smoothly.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Avocadofits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Limefits about as well
  4. Coconutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, ham, onion, celery, carrot, 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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