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Mock-turtle Soup

A soup made from calf head, brains, ham, herbs, Madeira wine, and forcemeat balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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. Clean and wash the calf's head.

  2. Split the head in two.

  3. Save the brains.

  4. Boil the head in plenty of water until tender.

Make the soup

  1. In a stewpan, fry the ham, parsley, thyme, leeks, cloves, black pepper, and butter until browned.

  2. Add the boiling water from the head to the stewpan.

  3. Cut the meat from the head into square pieces.

  4. Add the meat pieces to the soup.

  5. Stir in the Madeira wine, lemon slices, Cayenne pepper, and coarse sea salt to taste.

  6. Let it simmer gently for two hours.

  7. Skim it clear and serve.

Make the forcemeat balls

  1. For the forcemeat, pour hot water over the brains in a stewpan.

  2. Heat the brains for a few minutes.

  3. Chop the brains with parsley, salt, black pepper, wheat flour, butter, and the beaten egg.

  4. Form small balls.

  5. Drop the balls into the soup fifteen minutes 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. Thyme + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together360 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

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 richness.
Brains
Bound with egg and flour, they form tender forcemeat balls with a soft, delicate texture.
Egg
Binds the chopped brains and flour so the forcemeat balls hold their shape.
Wheat flour
Thickens the forcemeat mixture so it can be shaped into balls that hold together.
Madeira wine
Adds depth and a rich, slightly sweet aroma to the finished soup.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour to the browned aromatics and the forcemeat.

The step that matters

Skim it clear. Proteins and fat rise to the surface during the long simmer and can cloud the broth; skimming removes them so the soup stays clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the leek

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, parsley, thyme, clove, pepper, butter, madeira wine):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekthe original
  4. Turnipfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, parsley, thyme, clove, pepper, butter, madeira wine. 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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