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Soup

Old-fashioned Mock Turtle

A savory soup made from beef neck, ham, vegetables, herbs, and sherry, thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Old-fashioned Mock Turtle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head and broth

  1. Remove brain from head and wash it well.

  2. Soak head, pour in 9 quarts of cold water, and bring to a gentle boil.

  3. Skim surface clean and boil for 1.5 hours.

  4. Remove head and add 8 pounds of lightly browned neck of beef, ham, onions, celery, carrots, sweet herbs, lemon rind, peppercorns, and salt to the broth.

  5. Stew gently for 7-8 hours.

  6. Strain the stock and cool it to remove the fat easily.

  7. Remove skin and fat from head, cutting into strips.

  8. Cut tongue into strips or dice.

Make the soup

  1. In a large pot, combine 4-5 quarts of stock and bring to a boil.

  2. Thicken with a mixture of 4 ounces of butter and 4 ounces of flour, along with mace and cayenne.

  3. Stir in ½ pint of sherry and simmer for 1-2 minutes.

  4. Add the head and stew gently for 1.25 to 1.5 hours, stirring often to remove scum.

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 + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of beef
Gives the long-simmered stock its rich, meaty flavour and body.
Flour
Thickens the soup into a smooth, body-rich consistency when cooked with butter.
Butter
Enriches the thickened soup with fat for a smoother, rounder mouthfeel.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the finished soup.
Onions
Build savoury sweetness and aroma into the long-simmered stock.

The step that matters

Skimming the stock during the first boil and stirring while the head stews. Scum rising to the surface can cloud the broth and taste bitter; removing it keeps the stock clear and clean-flavoured. Stirring often stops solids from sticking and scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, ham, onion, celery, carrot, flour):

  1. Avocadofits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Limefits about as well
  4. Coconutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, ham, onion, celery, carrot, flour. 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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