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Mock Turtle Soup

A hearty soup made with calf's head, veal, beef, ham, vegetables, and herbs, simmered and strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Bone the calf’s head.

  2. Blanch it.

  3. Cook for three hours in stock or salted water.

  4. Press the head between two boards or dishes.

Make the soup

  1. Cut the veal, beef, and ham or bacon into pieces.

  2. Put them in a large stew-pan with the vegetables.

  3. Add the flour and stir well.

  4. Pour in the sherry and stock.

  5. Add the herbs and peppercorns.

  6. Bring to a boil.

  7. Let it simmer slowly for 20 minutes.

  8. If too thick, add a little more stock.

  9. Pass through a tammy cloth 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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  4. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Turnip + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,352 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 body, giving the soup a rich, thick texture.
Flour
Thickens the soup as its starch swells in the hot liquid.
Lean beef
Contributes meaty flavour and savoury depth to the stock.
Veal
Adds tender meat and gelatin that enrich the body of the soup.
Sherry
Adds acidity and a mellow, aromatic note to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Adding stock to the flour-thickened soup. Flour must be stirred in well before liquid is added so it disperses without lumps. Starch thickens as it heats, so the soup may become too thick and need more stock.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, flour, sherry, turnip, parsley, thyme, lemon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, sherry, turnip, parsley, thyme, lemon. 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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