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Soup

Mock-turtle

A hearty soup made from calf head, veal, pickled pork, and a blend of herbs and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 19 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 ↓

Mock-turtle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Clean the calf's head in hot water, squeezing to remove blood.

  2. Soak the head in cold water for 1 hour.

Make the stock

  1. In a large pot, combine the head, warm water, veal, pickled pork, roasted onions, lemon rind, pot-herbs, carrots, and celery.

  2. Boil for 2 hours.

  3. Remove the head and pork.

  4. Strip the skin from the head, remove the brain, tongue, and eye.

  5. Return the bones to the soup and boil for another 2 hours.

Prepare the meats

  1. Make forcemeat balls from the brain.

  2. Slice the tongue.

  3. Mince the eye.

  4. Cut the skin into 1-inch pieces.

Thicken and finish

  1. Melt butter in a saucepan.

  2. Sauté onions, basil, marjoram, parsley, thyme, bay leaves, mace, and allspice.

  3. Add flour to thicken.

  4. Gradually stir in the boiling stock to avoid lumps.

  5. Let it boil gently for 1 hour.

  6. Strain through a tammy.

  7. Return to heat.

  8. Add the meat 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 + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

  3. Clove + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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 its rich, thick texture.
Veal
Adds meaty flavor and gelatin to the stock as it simmers.
Pickled pork
Contributes savory, salty depth and fat to the stock.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth, velvety soup body.
Butter
Carries the sautéed herbs and aromatics and adds richness.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the boiling stock. Adding hot stock slowly to the flour-butter roux while whisking disperses the starch evenly, so the soup thickens smoothly without lumps.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, pork, onion, clove, carrot, celery, butter):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, pork, onion, clove, carrot, celery, butter. 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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