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Mock Turtle

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Tarragon and chive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 589 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Mock Turtle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Cut the calf's head in half.

  2. Clean the head well.

  3. Half-boil the head.

  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. Sauté shallots in butter.

  2. Add flour to thicken the gravy.

  3. Stir the gravy into the broth.

  4. Bring to a boil.

  5. Skim carefully.

  6. Add the head and Madeira wine.

  7. Simmer until the meat is tender.

  8. Add herbs, spices, mushroom ketchup, and soy sauce.

  9. Squeeze lemon juice into the tureen.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  3. Basil + chivetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Flour + chivetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,168 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Beef + chivetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together304 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 and gelatin-rich body that gives the soup its substance.
Butter
Fat for sautéing shallots, carrying flavor into the gravy base.
Flour
Thickens the gravy so the soup has a smooth, body-rich texture.
Madeira wine
Adds depth and aromatic sweetness that rounds the savory broth.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich broth and balances its fattiness.

The step that matters

Skim carefully. Rendered fat and foam rise to the surface as the broth boils; removing them keeps the soup clear and prevents a greasy, cloudy finish.

Swap the basil

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, veal, beef, madeira wine, tarragon, chive. 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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