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Mock Turtle Soup

A rich soup made from calf head, veal knuckle, beef, butter, onions, sage, flour, spices, and lemon rind.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Sage and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 331 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Remove the brains from the calf's head.

  2. Wash the head several times in cold water.

  3. Soak the head in water for about an hour.

  4. Place the head in a stew-pan and cover it with cold water and an additional ½ gallon.

  5. Remove any scum that rises as it warms.

  6. Boil gently for one hour.

  7. Remove the head and cut it into pieces about 1.5 inches by 1.25 inches.

  8. Reserve the tongue and brains for a side dish.

Make the stock

  1. Add 5 pounds of knuckle of veal and 5 pounds of beef to the stock, along with the trimmings and bones from the head.

  2. Skim well and cover, then boil for five hours.

  3. Strain the stock.

  4. Let it sit overnight.

  5. Remove the fat the next morning.

Make the soup

  1. In a large stew-pan, melt ½ pound of butter over medium heat.

  2. Add 12 ounces of sliced onions and 4 ounces of chopped sage. Fry for one hour.

  3. Stir in ½ pound of flour.

  4. Gradually add the broth until it reaches the thickness of cream.

  5. Season with ¼ ounce of ground allspice, ½ ounce of black pepper, and coarse sea salt to taste.

  6. Add the thinly peeled rind of one lemon. Simmer gently for one and a half hours.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain through a fine sieve without rubbing the soup to avoid grittiness.

  2. If the soup does not pass through easily, tap the sieve with a wooden spoon.

  3. Combine the strained soup with the head pieces and serve.

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. Sage + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together331 recipes

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

  2. Sage + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

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

  3. Allspice + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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 gelatin and body, giving the soup a rich, silky texture as it cooks.
Knuckle of veal
Adds collagen and savory depth to the stock, helping it set and carry flavor.
Beef
Contributes meaty savoriness and flavor depth to the long-simmered stock.
Butter
Carries the onions and sage and adds richness to the base of the soup.
Flour
Thickens the soup as it is added to the fat, giving it a creamy body.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they fry, building aromatic flavor into the soup.

The step that matters

Gradually add the broth. Adding broth slowly to the flour and fat mixture keeps lumps from forming, so the soup thickens smoothly to the intended cream-like consistency.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, beef, butter, sage, flour, allspice, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, beef, butter, sage, flour, allspice, pepper. 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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