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Mock Turtle Soup

A soup made from a calf's head, broth, butter, flour, tomato pulp, and red currant jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Prepare the calf's head by cleaning it thoroughly.

  2. Place the head in a large pot and cover with water.

  3. Add the herbs and spices, and bring to a boil.

  4. Simmer until the meat is tender, then remove the head and strain the broth.

Make the soup

  1. In a separate pan, melt the butter and stir in the flour to make a roux.

  2. Gradually add the strained broth to the roux, stirring until smooth.

  3. Add the tomato pulp, red currant jelly, and coarse sea salt to taste.

  4. Simmer for an additional 10 minutes before serving.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Tomato + red curranttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together59 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  3. Butter + red curranttop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together495 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  4. Flour + red curranttop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together394 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + tomatotop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's head
Provides the meat and gelatin that give the soup its body and rich texture.
Butter
Fat that combines with flour to form a roux for thickening.
Flour
Thickens the broth when cooked in fat to form a roux.
Tomato pulp
Adds acidity and savory depth to the broth.
Red currant jelly
Adds sweetness and a glossy finish that balances the savory broth.

The step that matters

Making the roux. Flour must cook in melted butter long enough to lose its raw taste and then be stirred in gradually with the broth so no lumps form. Adding broth too fast or stopping the stirring leaves lumps and a floury flavor.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, red currant):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, red currant. 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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