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Soup

Another Mock Turtle Soup

A soup made from a calf's head, beef and veal, onions, sage, butter, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Another Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Order a calf's head from the butcher.

  2. Ensure the head is split carefully.

  3. Place the head in a stew pan.

  4. Cover the head with cold water and add ½ gallon more.

  5. Bring the liquid to a boil.

  6. Constantly remove the scum.

  7. Boil for 1 hour.

  8. Remove the head and let it cool.

Make the stock

  1. Add the beef and veal to the liquor.

  2. Return the bones and trimmings to the pot.

  3. Cover and boil for 5 hours.

  4. Strain the liquor.

  5. Cool any excess gravy separately to keep it fresh.

Fry the onions and sage

  1. Fry the onions and sage in butter over low heat for 1 hour.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  2. Beef + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Meat + beeftop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,533 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Onion + sagetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Veal + sagetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together670 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 gelatin and body, giving the soup its rich, thick texture once simmered.
Beef and veal
Adds deep meaty flavor and savoriness to the stock during long simmering.
Butter
Carries the onions and sage, adding richness and helping them brown gently.
Sliced onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they cook slowly in butter.
Fresh sage
Contributes a warm, aromatic herbal note to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Constantly remove the scum. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise while the liquid heats. Skimming it steadily keeps the stock clear and free of bitter or cloudy off-flavors.

Swap the sage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, beef, veal, onion, butter):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Sagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, beef, veal, onion, butter. 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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