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Mock-turtle Soup

A hearty soup made from calf's head, beef, calf's feet, ham, vegetables, herbs, Madeira, and thickened with flour and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 27 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

Prepare the broth

  1. Scald the calf's head with the skin on, then remove the horny part and cut it into 2-inch pieces.

  2. Wash and dry the pieces, then place them in a stewpan with 4 quarts of broth made from beef, calf's feet, onion, carrots, turnip, ham, celery, cloves, pepper, sweet herbs, lemon peel, truffles, and 8 quarts of water.

  3. Stew until the broth reduces to 4 quarts, then strain it and return it to the stewpan.

Season and thicken

  1. Add knotted marjoram, savory, thyme, parsley, cloves, mace, cayenne pepper, chopped green onions, chopped shallot, chopped mushrooms, and Madeira.

  2. Gently stew until reduced to 2 quarts.

  3. Heat a little broth, mix flour smoothly in it with the egg yolks, and stir over gentle heat until near boiling.

  4. Add this mixture to the soup while stirring, and let it all stew together for an hour or more.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Calf's head
Provides body and gelatin, giving the finished soup a rich, substantial texture.
Calf's feet
Release gelatin into the broth, adding body and a silky mouthfeel.
Beef
Builds the savory, meaty depth of the broth as it simmers.
Flour
Thickens the soup when cooked into the liquid, giving it a fuller consistency.
Egg yolks
Enrich and further thicken the soup, adding richness and smoothness.
Madeira
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Mixing the flour and egg yolks into the broth. Flour and yolks clump if added directly to hot liquid. Mixing them smoothly in a little warm broth first, then stirring over gentle heat, keeps the thickener even and prevents the yolks from curdling.

Swap the clove

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

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

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