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Mock-turtle Soup

A soup made from a scalded calf's head, vegetables, flour, stock, sherry, eggs, and lemon peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Mock-turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Boil the scalded calf's head in hot water for 20 minutes, then drain and place in cold water.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the calf's head, 3 quarts of water, carrot, onion, cloves, garlic, parsley, vinegar, and salt.

  3. Mix 3 tablespoons of flour with a little water and add to the saucepan.

  4. Boil gently for 30 minutes.

  5. Drain the mixture and, when cool, cut the calf's head into small pieces.

Make the soup

  1. Add 1 quart of heavy stock to the saucepan and boil gently for 20 minutes.

  2. Before serving, stir in a glass of sherry, red pepper, chopped hard-boiled eggs (yolks and whites separately), and lemon peel.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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 texture.
Heavy stock
Adds richness and depth, building the body of the soup over a gentle simmer.
Flour
Thickens the liquid so the soup becomes smooth and fuller bodied.
Sherry
Adds a sweet, nutty aroma and a layer of acidity to finish the soup.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add texture and a mild, savory richness as a garnish-like addition in the soup.

The step that matters

Boiling the flour mixture gently. Flour needs to be fully cooked in simmering liquid to thicken smoothly and lose its raw starchy taste. Vigorous boiling can break up the calf's head pieces and cloud the broth.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, onion, garlic, parsley, vinegar, flour, sherry):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Cuminfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, onion, garlic, parsley, vinegar, flour, sherry. 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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