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Mock Turtle Soup

A soup made from calf head, forcemeat, tomatoes, and spices, served with diced meat and lemon slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cook the head

  1. Boil the calf's head slowly in cold water for 4 hours.

  2. Let it cool in the broth.

  3. Remove the head.

  4. Cut the flesh from the bones.

  5. Set aside the cheek and tongue to dice.

  6. Chop the remaining meat finely.

  7. Divide the chopped meat into two parts.

  8. Return one half to the skimmed broth with the bones and keep it warm.

  9. Make forcemeat with the other half, the brain, and a beaten egg.

  10. Season the forcemeat well.

  11. Roll the forcemeat into balls with floured hands.

  12. Bake the forcemeat balls in a 400°F (200°C) oven until firm.

Make the soup

  1. Strain the tomatoes through a sieve.

  2. After 1 hour of cooking, strain out the bones and meat from the soup.

  3. Return the soup to the heat with the strained tomatoes.

  4. Make a roux with the butter and flour.

  5. Stir the roux until smooth and brown.

  6. Thin the roux with a few spoonfuls of the soup.

  7. Add the thinned roux back to the soup.

  8. Season the soup with allspice, pepper, and salt.

  9. Cook the soup at a boil for a few minutes.

  10. Add the meat-dice to the soup.

  11. Add the lemon slices 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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Pepper + allspicetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,395 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Lemon + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Tomato + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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 gelatinous flesh and rich body that gives the soup its character.
Butter
Fat that combines with the flour to form a roux for thickening.
Browned flour
Thickens the soup and adds a toasted, nutty colour and flavour.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and colour to the broth.
Raw egg
Binds the forcemeat so the balls hold their shape while baking.
Brown sherry
Adds sweetness and depth of flavour to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Thinning the roux before adding it to the soup. Adding roux straight into hot soup can form lumps. Thinning it with a little soup first lets the flour disperse evenly, so the soup thickens smoothly.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, lemon, sherry, pepper, allspice, egg):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, lemon, sherry, pepper, allspice, egg. 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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