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Mock-Turtle Soup

A hearty bean soup flavored with stock, onion, celery, butter, flour, pepper, sugar, and optional tomato juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mock-Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the beans for 12 hours.

  2. Skim and strain the stock.

Cook the soup

  1. Place the stock cold at the back of the stove with the beans, onion, and celery.

  2. Cook gently for 2 hours without boiling.

  3. Ensure the soup does not burn.

Strain and finish

  1. When the beans are broken, pour the contents into a colander set over a kettle.

  2. Rub the beans through into the liquid below.

  3. Return to the heat.

  4. Stir in pepper, sugar, and the butter-flour mixture.

  5. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve with fried bread cubes and lemon slices on top.

  2. Optionally add a little tomato juice.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Beans + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Beans + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,242 recipes

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

  5. Beans + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,733 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

Black or purple beans
Breaking down and rubbing through the beans gives the soup its body and thickness.
Stock
Forms the liquid base and carries most of the soup's savoury flavour.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth as it softens during the long gentle simmer.
Celery
Contributes a fresh, herbal aroma to the flavour base.
Butter
Adds richness and smooth mouthfeel when combined with flour.
Flour
Thickens the soup slightly when cooked with butter before stirring in.

The step that matters

Cook gently without boiling. Gentle heat lets the beans soften evenly until they break down. Boiling can scorch the sugars and starches on the base of the pan and make the soup taste burnt.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, ham, celery, butter, flour, pepper, sugar):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, ham, celery, butter, flour, pepper, sugar. 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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