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Old-fashioned Mock Turtle

A hearty soup made with 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. Wash the calf's head and soak it well.

  2. In a large pot, combine the head and 9 quarts of cold water. Bring to a gentle boil and skim off any impurities.

  3. Boil the head for 1.5 hours. Remove the head from the pot.

Make the stock

  1. In the same pot, add 8 pounds of lightly browned neck of beef, 3-4 slices of ham, sliced onions, chopped celery, chopped carrots, savory herbs, lemon rind, peppercorns, and salt.

  2. Stew the mixture gently for 6-7 hours.

  3. Strain the stock and cool it to solidify the fat on top.

  4. Remove the skin and fat from the head.

Finish the soup

  1. Cut the head into strips. Carve the tongue into strips or dice.

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

  3. Thicken the stock with butter, flour, mace, and cayenne pepper.

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

  5. Add the head back into the pot. Let it stew gently for 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1.5 hours, stirring 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 the gelatinous meat and body that gives the soup its rich, thick character.
Neck of beef
Adds deep beefy flavour and gelatin to the stock during the long gentle stew.
Butter
Enriches the soup and, with flour, forms a roux that thickens the stock.
Flour
Thickens the stock with butter, giving the soup a smooth, body-rich texture.
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 into the butter and stirred into hot stock so it dissolves smoothly without lumps; adding it raw or too fast causes clumping and an uneven texture.

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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