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Mock Turtle Soup

A hearty soup made with a soup bone, tomato liquor, wine, and hard‑boiled eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. In the morning, place the soup bone in a large pot with water and bring to a boil.

  2. Add salt, pepper, half an onion, and 1½ cups of tomato liquor or catsup, then boil for three hours.

Thicken and finish

  1. In a bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of browned flour, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of butter, and a little milk or cream to create a thickening.

  2. Stir the thickening into the soup.

  3. Combine 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, grated nutmeg, 1 cup of wine, lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of mustard, and chopped hard-boiled eggs.

  4. Stir this mixture into the soup just 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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Soup bone
Simmered for hours to release flavour and body into the broth.
Browned flour
Thickens the soup and adds a toasted, nutty flavour.
Egg
Enriches and helps bind the thickening mixture.
Tomato liquor or catsup
Adds acidity, sweetness and colour to the broth.
Wine
Adds acidity and aroma to the finished soup.
Mustard
Adds sharpness and a pungent flavour that balances the richness.

The step that matters

Stirring the thickening into the soup. Flour mixed with egg and dairy can clump if dropped in hot liquid unevenly. Blend it smoothly first and stir steadily while adding it so the soup thickens evenly without lumps or curdling.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, tomato, flour, egg, butter, milk, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, tomato, flour, egg, butter, milk, sauce. 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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