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Lister's Mock Mock Turtle

A stew of beef, cow heel, and aromatics simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and winter savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 780 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Lister's Mock Mock Turtle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pan

  1. Line the bottom of a 5‑pint stew pan with bacon or ham.

  2. Add beef, cow heel, carrot rind, thyme, savory, parsley, basil, and shallots.

  3. Tie a bundle with mace and add it to the pan.

  4. Stick cloves into the onion.

  5. Add the onion along with allspice and black pepper.

  6. Pour in cold water.

  7. Cover the pan.

  8. Simmer on low for 15 minutes.

  9. Remove the cover.

  10. Brown the meat.

Simmer and finish

  1. Fill the pan with boiling water.

  2. Simmer gently for 2 hours until the meat is tender.

  3. Cut the meat into mouthfuls.

  4. Add the meat to the soup.

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. Thyme + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together780 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Thyme + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  5. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lean gravy beef
Provides the main meat flavour and, once simmered, the tender meat served in the soup.
Cow heel
Adds gelatine, which thickens the broth and gives it a silky, body-rich texture.
Bacon or ham
Adds savoury, salty fat that flavours the broth and the browned meat.
Onion
Contributes sweetness and savoury depth to the stock as it simmers.
Carrot rind
Adds subtle sweetness and aromatic body to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 2 hours. A gentle simmer slowly breaks down connective tissue and gelatine in the beef and cow heel. Boiling hard toughens the meat and clouds the broth.

“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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