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Soup

Mock Turtle Soup

A soup of soaked purple beans, beef stock, onion, celery, butter, flour, and meatballs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Soak the purple beans overnight in enough water to cover them.

  2. In the morning, place the beans in a pot with 1 quart of water and heat for 1 hour.

Make the soup

  1. Add the beef stock, sliced onion, and celery; cook slowly for 3 hours.

  2. Rub the mixture through a colander and return it to the pot.

  3. When the soup boils, stir in the butter mixed with flour, and season with salt and pepper.

  4. Once thickened, add the meatballs.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Beans + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Beans + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,242 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

Purple beans
Provide the main body and thickening base once puréed through a colander.
Beef stock
Supplies the savoury, meaty liquid that forms the base of the soup.
Butter and flour
Form a roux that thickens the soup as it comes to a boil.
Celery
Adds a fresh, aromatic background flavour during the long simmer.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens during the long simmer.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a colander. Pressing the cooked beans and vegetables through a colander breaks them down into a smooth purée, which gives the soup its body. Skipping or rushing this step leaves the texture coarse and grainy.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, beef, onion, butter, flour, pepper):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Turmericfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, beef, onion, butter, flour, pepper. 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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