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Soup

Mock-Turtle Soup

A bean-based soup flavored with onion, celery, butter, flour, pepper, and sugar, served with fried bread cubes and lemon slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mock-Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the beans for 12 hours.

Make the soup

  1. Skim and strain the stock, then place it in a pot with the beans, onion, and celery.

  2. Cook gently for 2 hours without boiling, then ensure it doesn't burn.

  3. When the beans are soft, strain them through a colander into the pot.

  4. Stir in pepper, sugar, and the butter-flour mixture, then simmer for 15 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve with fried bread cubes and lemon slices on top.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Beans + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Beans + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,242 recipes

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

  5. Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Black or purple beans
Provide the main body and earthy flavor of the soup once softened and strained.
Butter-flour mixture
Thickens the soup as the flour cooks in the fat, giving it body.
Sugar
Adds a touch of sweetness that balances the savory stock.

The step that matters

Cook gently without boiling. A hard boil can break the stock and scorch the bottom of the pot, so a gentle simmer keeps the soup clear and prevents burning.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, celery, butter, flour, pepper, sugar):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, celery, butter, flour, pepper, sugar. 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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