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Clear Mock Turtle Soup

A clear soup made with calf's head, stock, forcemeat balls, egg whites, butter, vegetables, herbs, lemon rind, salt, pepper, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery 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 ↓

Clear Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the broth

  1. Prepare the calf's head by cleaning it thoroughly.

  2. In a large pot, combine the stock or water with the calf's head, onion, carrot, celery, tomatoes, mixed herbs, and lemon rind.

  3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for several hours until the meat is tender.

  4. Remove the calf's head, and strain the broth to remove solids.

Finish the soup

  1. Return the broth to the pot, add forcemeat balls, and simmer for 10 minutes.

  2. Whisk the egg whites until frothy and stir them into the soup.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and sherry before serving.

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. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  4. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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 meat and gelatin that give the soup its body and rich flavour.
Egg whites
Whisked in to help clarify the broth, gathering fine particles for easier straining.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the soup.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma at the end, rounding out the flavour.
Onion
Builds savoury sweetness and aroma as it simmers into the stock.

The step that matters

Simmering the calf's head. Simmering gently for several hours until tender matters because a hard boil makes the broth cloudy and can leave the meat tough.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, butter, carrot, celery, tomato, lemon, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, carrot, celery, tomato, lemon, pepper. 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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