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Mock Turtle Soup

A hearty soup made with calf's head, veal, ham, vegetables, herbs, and small forcemeat balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery 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 ↓

Mock Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the head

  1. Scald and clean the calf's head, cut the cheek from the bone, roll it neatly, and tie it in a clean cloth.

  2. Place the head in a saucepan with the bones, ham, and other ingredients.

Simmer and strain

  1. Simmer for 3 hours.

  2. Remove the head and strain the soup.

  3. When cold, remove the fat and return the soup to the saucepan.

Thicken and finish

  1. Boil and thicken with flour or cornflour.

  2. Add seasoning if needed, the juice of ½ lemon, the forcemeat balls, and small pieces of meat.

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

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour or cornflour
Thickens the soup as it boils, giving it a fuller body.
Calf's head
Gives body and gelatin to the stock as it simmers for hours.
Veal
Adds meaty flavour and richness to the stock.
Lean ham
Contributes savoury, smoky depth to the stock.
Lemon juice
Adds a bright acidity that lifts the rich broth.

The step that matters

Removing the fat when cold. Skimming after the soup chills lets the fat solidify on top so it lifts off cleanly. Removing it while warm would leave greasy, cloudy broth.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, onion, carrot, turnip, celery, 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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