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Soup

Old-fashioned Mock Turtle

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 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

  1. Remove the brain from the calf's head.

  2. Wash the head.

  3. Soak the head well.

  4. Combine the head with 9 quarts of cold water in a large pot.

  5. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil.

  6. Skim the surface clean.

  7. Boil for 1.5 hours.

  8. Remove the head.

Make the stock

  1. Add 8 pounds of lightly browned neck of beef, ham, onions, celery, carrots, herbs, lemon rind, peppercorns, and salt to the pot.

  2. Stew gently for 6-7 hours.

  3. Strain the stock.

  4. Cool the stock to solidify the fat on top.

  5. Remove the skin and fat from the head.

  6. Cut the skin and fat into strips or dice the tongue.

Finish the soup

  1. Combine 4-5 quarts of stock in a large soup pot.

  2. Bring the stock to a boil.

  3. Thicken the stock with a mixture of 4 ounces of butter and 4 ounces of flour.

  4. Add mace and cayenne pepper to the stock.

  5. Stir in ½ pint of sherry.

  6. Simmer for 1-2 minutes.

  7. Add the head back into the pot.

  8. Let it stew gently for 1.25 to 1.5 hours.

  9. Stir often.

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

Calf's head
Provides gelatin and meat that give the soup its body and richness.
Neck of beef
Adds deep beefy flavour and gelatin to the stock during long stewing.
Butter
Enriches the thickened stock and adds rich, savoury flavour.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth, velvety body when cooked with butter.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Thicken the stock with butter and flour. Flour must be cooked with the fat and stock to avoid lumps and a raw starchy taste. Adding it to boiling stock while stirring keeps the texture smooth.

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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