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Mock Turtle

A savory soup made from calf's head, broth, Madeira wine, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,563 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Mock Turtle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Clean the calf's head.

  2. Cut the head in half.

  3. Boil the head until tender.

  4. Remove the meat in square pieces.

  5. Break the bones.

  6. Boil the bones in veal and beef broth for richness.

Make the soup

  1. Fry shallots in butter.

  2. Add flour to thicken the gravy.

  3. Stir the thickened gravy into the broth.

  4. Bring the broth to a boil.

  5. Add the head back into the pot along with the Madeira wine.

  6. Simmer until the meat is tender.

  7. Add basil, tarragon, chives, parsley, Cayenne pepper, and salt ten minutes before serving.

  8. Stir in mushroom ketchup and soy sauce.

Serve

  1. Squeeze lemon juice into the tureen.

  2. Pour the soup over it.

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. Tarragon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Tarragon + chivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together589 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Basil + tarragontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together326 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  4. Basil + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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 gelatinous meat and body that give the soup its rich, thick texture.
Butter
Fat for frying shallots, carrying flavour into the gravy base.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so the broth becomes body-rich and coats the meat.
Madeira wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour as it reduces during simmering.
Mushroom ketchup
Adds savoury umami depth to the broth.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich broth just before serving.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour into the gravy. Flour clumps if added to hot fat or liquid without being fully combined, leaving lumps; cooking it briefly in the butter and stirring it smoothly into the broth gives an even, thickened body.

Swap the basil

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, madeira wine, tarragon, chive, parsley, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, madeira wine, tarragon, chive, parsley, pepper. 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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