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Mock Turtle Soup

A hearty soup made with beef shank, carrots, potatoes, onions, thyme, veal, eggs, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,563 recipes. Both carry cuminaldehyde, which smells Spicy, cumin. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Boil the beef shank in water for 2 hours, skimming off any grease.

  2. Add the sliced carrots, diced potatoes, chopped onion, thyme, salt, and pepper.

  3. Continue boiling for another 2 hours.

  4. Strain the soup.

  5. Return the strained soup to the pot.

  6. Boil again for 1 hour.

Make the veal balls

  1. Cook the veal until well done.

  2. Mash the veal and season with salt, pepper, and thyme.

  3. Beat in the eggs and form the mixture into balls.

  4. Fry the balls until golden.

Finish the soup

  1. Drop the fried balls into the soup.

  2. Season the soup with wine.

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. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  2. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  4. Carrot + potatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Potato + thymetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Beef shank
Long simmering breaks down collagen, giving the broth body and a rich meaty flavor.
Veal
Cooked and mashed, it forms the main meat of the balls and gives them a tender texture.
Eggs
Their proteins set when heated, binding the mashed veal so the balls hold their shape.
Browned flour
Adds a nutty, toasted flavor and deep color, and helps thicken the soup.
Potatoes
Their starch softens during cooking, adding body and mild sweetness to the broth.
Carrots
Release natural sugars during simmering, adding sweetness that balances the savory broth.

The step that matters

Frying the veal balls until golden. Frying browns the outside through Maillard reactions, adding flavor, and sets the egg proteins so the balls keep their shape instead of breaking apart in the hot soup.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, carrot, potato, thyme, pepper, flour, veal):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, carrot, potato, thyme, pepper, flour, veal. 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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