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Clear Mock Turtle Soup

A clear soup made from calf's head, vegetables, herbs, and clarified stock, finished with sherry, lemon juice, and reserved meat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Clear Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Soak the calf's head in salt water for 24 hours, changing the water frequently.

  2. Bone the head, reserving the brains and tongue for another use. Tie the meat in a thin cloth and break the bones into small pieces.

  3. Place the bones in a large pot, cover with cold water, add 1 tablespoon of salt, bring to a boil, then strain and rinse the bones in cold water.

  4. Return the meat and bones to the pot, add the stock and 2 teaspoons of salt, bring to a boil, and skim off any scum.

Make the stock

  1. Add the prepared vegetables, herbs, peppercorns, cloves, and mace. Cover and cook slowly for about 3 hours.

  2. Strain the soup, set the meat aside, and let the stock cool. Remove the fat and clarify the stock with the chopped beef, veal, and egg whites.

Finish the soup

  1. Return the clarified stock to the pot, add the sherry, lemon juice, and some of the reserved meat cut into small pieces. Season to taste.

  2. If a thicker soup is desired, stir in 2 teaspoons of arrowroot 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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Basil + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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 gelatin and meat that give the soup body and its rich, savory character.
Lean beef
Its proteins bind with egg whites to clarify the stock into a clear broth.
Lean veal
Adds meaty flavor and, with the beef, helps clarify the stock as it cooks.
Egg whites
Coagulate during simmering and trap particles, leaving the stock clear.
Sherry
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the finished soup.
Arrowroot (in the method)
Thickens the soup by gelatinizing when heated, giving a silkier body.

The step that matters

Clarifying the stock. Egg whites and meat must be stirred in cold, then the stock brought slowly to a simmer. Boiling too hard breaks the raft and leaves the soup cloudy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (carrot, turnip, celery, parsley, basil, marjoram, thyme):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against carrot, turnip, celery, parsley, basil, marjoram, thyme. 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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