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Mock Turtle Soup

A soup made from calf head, calf feet, veal cutlets, flour, onions, spices, eggs, and optional port or sherry.

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 ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Boil the calf's head and feet in plenty of water until the bones can be removed.

  2. In the same water, boil the veal cutlets until tender for the forcemeat balls.

  3. Add the brown flour, fried onions, salt, pepper, and spices to the broth.

  4. Before skimming the soup, add savory, marjoram, and thyme.

Finish the soup

  1. Chop the cheek meat from the head into small squares and add to the soup.

  2. Chop the whites of the hard-boiled eggs and add them to the soup, placing the yolks whole.

  3. When serving, add port or sherry to taste and garnish with lemon slices or juice.

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. Pepper + marjoramtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Brown flour
Thickens the broth so it has body and a richer texture.
Calf's head
Gives the soup gelatin and body as it cooks down with the bones.
Calf's feet
Release gelatin during long boiling, adding body and a silky mouthfeel to the broth.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they cook into the broth.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add richness and texture as chopped whites and whole yolks in the soup.

The step that matters

Before skimming the soup, add savory, marjoram, and thyme.. Herbs added too late or too early change the flavor balance; adding them before skimming lets their aromatic compounds infuse the broth while fat and foam are removed.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, flour, butter, pepper, marjoram, thyme, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, flour, butter, pepper, marjoram, thyme, egg. 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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