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Clear Mock Turtle

A clear soup made with calf's head, veal knuckle, ham, vegetables, herbs, stock, Madeira, and seasonings, served with quenelles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 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 ↓

Clear Mock Turtle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Bone the calf's head.

  2. Parboil the calf's head in cold water with a little salt for 20 minutes. Remove it from the water and let it cool.

  3. Trim away rough parts.

Simmer and finish

  1. In a stewpan, combine the calf's head, knuckle of veal, ham, cleaned and chopped vegetables, herbs, and stock.

  2. Simmer gently until all ingredients are tender.

  3. Add Madeira, cayenne, and lemon juice. Season with salt.

  4. Serve with small quenelles.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Clove + basiltop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Carrot + basiltop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,113 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's head
Provides gelatine and body, giving the soup its rich, thick texture.
Knuckle veal
Adds gelatine and meaty flavour to the stock as it simmers.
Raw ham
Contributes savoury, salty depth to the broth.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries all the flavours.
Madeira
Adds sweetness and aromatic richness when added near the end.

The step that matters

Simmer gently until all ingredients are tender. A gentle simmer draws gelatine out of the bones and head slowly, giving body. A hard boil makes the broth cloudy and can toughen the meat.

Swap the basil

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, carrot, turnip, onion, clove, celery. 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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