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Mock-turtle Soup

A hearty soup made from calf head, brains, ham, leeks, and Madeira wine, finished with boiled forcemeat balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,057 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mock-turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Clean and wash the calf's head, split it in two, and save the brains.

  2. Boil the head in plenty of water until tender.

Make the soup

  1. In a stew pan, fry the ham, parsley, thyme, leeks, cloves, pepper, and butter until browned.

  2. Add the boiling water from the head to the stew pan.

  3. Cut the meat from the head into neat square pieces and add to the soup.

  4. Stir in the Madeira and lemon, then season with Cayenne pepper and salt to taste.

  5. Let it simmer gently for two hours, then skim it clear and serve.

Make the forcemeat balls

  1. For the forcemeat, chop the brains after pouring hot water over them for a few minutes.

  2. Mix the chopped brains with parsley, salt, pepper, flour, butter, and the beaten egg.

  3. Form small balls and drop them into the soup fifteen minutes 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. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  4. Thyme + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together360 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Thyme + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,108 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

Calf's head
Provides the gelatinous meat and body that give the soup its rich texture.
Butter
Carries the frying aromatics and adds richness and browning to the base.
Brains
Bind with egg and flour to form the soft forcemeat balls.
Egg
Binds the chopped brains so the forcemeat balls hold their shape.
Wheat flour
Helps thicken the brain mixture so the forcemeat balls hold together.
Madeira wine
Adds acidity and depth of flavour to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Simmering and skimming the soup. A gentle simmer keeps the broth clear and prevents the meat and fat from emulsifying into a cloudy liquid. Skimming removes the foam and fat that rise, so the soup stays clean-tasting.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, parsley, thyme, leek, butter, madeira wine, lemon):

  1. Marjoramfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Sagefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, parsley, thyme, leek, butter, madeira wine, lemon. 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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