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Soup

Old-fashioned Mock Turtle

A hearty soup made from a boiled head, beef, ham, vegetables, herbs, lemon rind, spices, sherry, and thickened with butter and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Old-fashioned Mock Turtle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head and stock

  1. Remove the brain from the head and wash it thoroughly.

  2. Soak the head well.

  3. In a large pot, pour in 9 quarts of cold water and bring it to a gentle boil.

  4. Skim off any impurities.

  5. Boil the head for 1.5 hours, then remove it from the pot.

  6. Add the browned beef, ham, onions, celery, carrots, savory herbs, lemon rind, peppercorns, and salt to the pot.

  7. Stew these ingredients gently for 6-7 hours.

  8. Strain the stock and cool it in a refrigerator until the fat solidifies on top.

Thicken and season

  1. Remove the skin and fat from the head, cutting it into strips or dice.

  2. In a large soup pot, bring the stock to a boil.

  3. Mix the butter and flour together.

  4. Thicken the boiling stock with this mixture.

  5. Add mace and cayenne pepper to taste, starting with small amounts.

  6. Pour in the sherry and stir for 1-2 minutes.

  7. Add the head back into the pot and let it stew gently for 1.25 to 1.5 hours, stirring often.

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 + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

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

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of beef
Gives the stock its rich, meaty flavor as it simmers for hours.
Butter and flour
Together they form a roux that thickens the boiling stock.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savory flavor to the stock during the long stew.
Onions
Add sweetness and depth of flavor to the stock as they cook down.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aroma to finish the soup.

The step that matters

Thicken the boiling stock with the butter and flour mixture. Flour must be fully mixed with the butter and stirred into boiling stock; if added unevenly or without enough stirring, it forms lumps instead of a smooth, evenly thickened soup.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, ham, onion, celery, carrot, flour):

  1. Avocadofits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Limefits about as well
  4. Coconutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, ham, onion, celery, carrot, flour. 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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