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Mock Turtle

A hearty soup made from calf's head, ham, herbs, and stock, finished with lemon, orange, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Mock Turtle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the calf's head

  1. Scald the calf's head with the skin on.

  2. Remove the brain.

  3. Tie the head in a cloth.

  4. Boil for 1 hour.

  5. Remove the meat from the bones.

  6. Cut the meat into small square pieces.

  7. Place the pieces in cold water.

  8. Put the meat into a stewpan.

  9. Cover with stock.

  10. Boil gently for 1 hour or until tender.

  11. Set aside.

Make the soup base

  1. Melt the butter in another stewpan.

  2. Add the small‑cut ham, herbs, parsley, onions, shallots, mushrooms, and nearly 1 pint of stock.

  3. Simmer slowly for 2 hours.

  4. Dredge in enough flour to absorb the butter.

  5. Fill up with the remaining stock.

  6. Add the wine.

  7. Stew gently for 10 minutes.

  8. Rub the mixture through a sieve.

Combine and serve

  1. Add it to the calf's head.

  2. Season with cayenne, salt, lemon juice, orange juice, mace, and sugar.

  3. Add the forcemeat balls.

  4. Simmer for 5 minutes.

  5. Serve very hot.

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 + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

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 give the soup its rich, thick character.
Butter
Fat that carries the herbs and aromatics and, with flour, forms the base of the thickened soup.
Flour
Absorbs the butter and thickens the soup as it cooks.
Ham
Adds savory, salty depth to the soup base.
Onions
Build savory sweetness and aroma as they soften in the butter.
Madeira or sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic complexity to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Dredge in enough flour to absorb the butter. Flour must be stirred into the melted butter so it cooks into a roux; adding too little leaves the soup thin, while adding it without cooking the flour leaves a raw floury taste.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, ham, parsley, lemon, thyme, marjoram, basil):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, ham, parsley, lemon, thyme, marjoram, basil. 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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