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Mock Turtle Soup

A soup made from calf head broth, diced meat, forcemeat balls, tomatoes, lemon, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the broth

  1. Boil the calf's head slowly in cold water for 4 hours.

  2. Let the head cool in the broth.

  3. Remove the head.

  4. Cut the meat from the bones.

  5. Set aside the cheek meat and tongue.

  6. Cut the cheek meat and tongue into dice.

  7. Chop the remaining meat finely.

  8. Divide the chopped meat into two parts.

  9. Return one half to the skimmed broth with the bones.

  10. Keep it warm.

Make the forcemeat

  1. Make forcemeat with the other half of the meat.

  2. Mix the forcemeat with the brain, a beaten egg, and season well.

  3. Roll the forcemeat into balls with floured hands.

  4. Bake the balls in a 400°F (200°C) oven until firm.

Finish the soup

  1. Strain the broth after one hour.

  2. Discard the bones and meat.

  3. Add the strained tomatoes to the broth.

  4. Heat the broth.

  5. In a frying pan, make a roux with butter and flour.

  6. Stir the roux until smooth and brown.

  7. Thin the roux with some broth.

  8. Add the spices, pepper, and salt to the soup.

  9. Cook the soup for a few minutes at a boil.

  10. Add the meat dice and lemon to the soup.

  11. Drop the balls into the soup without boiling it further.

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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Lemon + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

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

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, cheek and tongue, and the gelatinous body of the broth.
Butter and flour roux
Browned flour thickens the soup and adds a toasted, rich colour and flavour.
Raw egg
Binds the forcemeat so the balls hold their shape while baking.
Strained tomatoes
Add acidity and colour to the broth.
Brown sherry
Adds sweetness and depth of aroma to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Drop the balls into the soup without boiling it further. Boiling vigorously after adding the baked forcemeat balls can make them break apart and toughen, so they should be added to gently simmering soup at the end.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, lemon, sherry, pepper, allspice, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, lemon, sherry, pepper, allspice, egg. 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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