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A Simple Mock-turtle Soup

A clear broth made from veal knuckle and calves' feet, seasoned with parsley, savory, mace, onions, cloves, salt, and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and summer savory match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 241 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

A Simple Mock-turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Place the veal and calves' feet in a large pot with the water, parsley, summer savory, mace, and onions.

  2. Stick 6 cloves into each onion.

Cook and strain

  1. Boil for 4 hours.

  2. Skim off any grease that rises to the surface.

  3. Strain the mixture through a cloth.

  4. Let it stand overnight.

  5. The next morning, skim off any remaining grease.

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 + summer savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together241 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Summer savory + clovetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Veal knuckle
Provides meat flavor and body to the stock as it simmers.
Calves' feet
Release gelatin during long simmering, giving the soup a rich, silky body.
Onions
Add aromatic sweetness and savory depth to the stock.

The step that matters

Skimming the grease. Fat that rises during the long boil can make the soup greasy and cloudy if left in, so removing it as it surfaces, and again after chilling, keeps the stock clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, parsley, summer savory, onion, clove, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, parsley, summer savory, onion, clove, 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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