Skip to main content
Main

Mock Turtle

A hearty soup made with beef neck, ham, vegetables, herbs, and a rich stock thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Celery and carrot 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. Remove the brain from the head and wash the head thoroughly.

  2. Soak the head well.

  3. Pour 9 quarts of cold water over the head and bring to a gentle boil.

  4. Skim the surface clean and boil for 1.5 hours.

  5. Remove the head and add 8 pounds of lightly browned neck of beef, ham, onions, celery, carrots, savory herbs, lemon peel, peppercorns, and bull to the broth.

  6. Stew gently for 6-7 hours.

  7. Strain the stock and cool it to solidify the fat on top.

  8. Remove the skin and fat from the head, cutting it into strips or dice.

Thicken and finish

  1. Put 4-5 quarts of stock into a large pot and thicken it with 4 ounces of butter mixed with an equal weight of flour.

  2. Add ½ teaspoon of mace and ⅓ teaspoon of cayenne, adjusting to taste.

  3. Pour in ½ pint of sherry and stir until simmering for 1-2 minutes.

  4. Add the head and let it stew gently for 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1.5 hours, stirring often.

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. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

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

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

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

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Beef neck
Gives the stock its rich, meaty flavour and body as it stews for hours.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the stock into a smooth, velvety body.
Calf's head
Supplies gelatin and meat that give the soup body and texture.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to finish the soup.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty depth to the broth.

The step that matters

Thickening the stock with butter and flour. Flour must be cooked into the fat and the stock kept simmering so the roux thickens smoothly without lumps or a raw floury taste.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, ham, onion, celery, carrot, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, ham, onion, celery, carrot, flour. 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.

You might also like

Lemon SauceLemon Sauce236 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipes