Name: Mock Turtle Soup
Ingredients: 1 gallon of soup; 2 tablespoons lemon juice; 2 tablespoons mushroom ketchup; 1 tablespoon essence of anchovy; ½ pint Madeira or Claret; 1 teaspoon curry powder; ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; peel of 1 lemon

Why it works: Ketchup and anchovy match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 479 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

In a large pot, combine the soup with lemon juice, mushroom ketchup, essence of anchovy, wine, curry powder, and cayenne pepper.
Add the lemon peel and let it simmer for 5 minutes.
Remove the lemon peel before serving.
Prepare Mock Turtle Forcemeat Balls and Egg balls to add to the tureen.

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.

Ketchup + anchovytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together479 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon + mushroomtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon + anchovytop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,080 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).