🇬🇧 United Kingdom · England
Mock turtle soup
A rich British soup made from calf's head, flavoured with Madeira or sherry, herbs and diced ham, devised as a cheaper imitation of green turtle soup. It is served clear like a consommé or thicker with the meat returned to the broth.
Origin and history
Mock turtle soup was made as a cheaper stand-in for real turtle soup, which became fashionable in Britain in the 1750s, after live turtles were shipped from the West Indies, and grew scarce and expensive. Foods of England says it is known from the mid-18th century and was popular in the 19th; it was usually made with calf's head and given a green colour. Tenniel's Mock Turtle in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland shows a calf's head, and Heinz canned a version in the 1930s.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 6 servings
- Total time
- 6 h
- Hands-on
- 1 h 15 min
Ingredients
- 1.2 kg2.6 lb calf's head, half, boned if you like, from a butcher, brain removed; or veal cheeks and tongue; soaked in salted water for 2 hours
- 1 kg2.2 lb beef shin or neck, browned in butter
- 1 smoked ham hock
- 30 g2 tbsp butter, for browning
- 2 onions, quartered
- 2 carrots, chunked
- 1 head celery, chopped
- 1 bouquet garni, thyme, bay, rosemary and a strip of lemon rind
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- 30 g each2 tbsp each butter and plain flour, kneaded together (beurre manié) to thicken
- 100 mlscant 1/2 cup dry Madeira or sherry
- 1/4 tsp ground mace, plus a pinch of cayenne
- 100 g3.5 oz cooked ham, finely diced
- 4 hard-boiled egg yolks, for egg balls: pounded with a little flour and raw yolk
- 150 g5 oz streaky bacon, minced, for forcemeat balls
- 50 g1/2 cup beef suet, grated, for forcemeat balls
- 40 g1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs, for forcemeat balls
- 1 egg, beaten, to bind the forcemeat; with parsley, marjoram, nutmeg
- lemon juice, salt, chopped parsley, to finish
Method
-
1. Put the soaked calf's head in a large pot of tepid water, bring slowly to a bare simmer, skim, cover and cook for 1 h 30 min.
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2. Brown the beef in the butter. Add it to a clean pot with the ham hock, onions, carrots, celery, bouquet garni and peppercorns, and add the cooking liquid from the head plus water to cover.
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3. Return the head, and simmer gently for 3 to 4 hours, skimming now and then, until the head meat is tender and the stock is rich.
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4. Lift out the meat and bones, strain the stock and reduce it if it is thin. Pick the head meat and tongue, skin the tongue, and cut all the meat into small even pieces.
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5. Mix the forcemeat ingredients and shape into walnut-size balls. Fry them in butter until golden.
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6. Heat the stock to a simmer and whisk in the beurre manié in pieces until lightly thickened. Add the Madeira, mace and cayenne.
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7. Return the head meat and the diced ham, season with salt and a squeeze of lemon, and simmer 10 minutes.
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8. Serve with forcemeat balls and egg balls in each bowl, and scatter parsley.
Notes
- Mock turtle was a cheaper imitation of green turtle soup, which became fashionable in Britain in the 1750s. British Food History says mock turtle recipes use calf's head, tongue, skin, ham, beef or oysters to imitate the mixed texture and flavour of turtle meat.
- Calf's head is hard to find now: Sydney Living Museums' cook had to order one from a butcher and could not get it with the skin on, and notes that cheeks have recently become fashionable. Veal cheeks, ox cheek or a veal knuckle give a similar gelatinous body, but the flavour will differ from the old soup.
- Soup can be served clear like a consommé (strain and skip the thickening) or thick with the meat in the bowl; this recipe gives the thick version. Madeira or sherry is the signature flavouring.
- Quantities are scaled down by roughly three quarters from British Food History's modern adaptation of Eliza Acton's 'old fashioned' recipe (calf's head, 4 kg beef, a hock, vegetables, beurre manié, 200 ml sherry, mace, forcemeat balls), so the broth is lighter on beef than the original. Acton's other 'Good calf's head soup' (as transcribed on Crafty Cookies' blog) thickens with rice flour, adds mushroom ketchup and uses 2 wineglasses of sherry, and Miss Leslie's American version adds sliced potatoes and turnips, herbs and half a pint of Madeira, with egg balls of hard-boiled yolk, as used here. Elizabeth Moxon (1764) uses white wine and Francatelli (1846) a cheaper half head with lemon and cloves.
- Skip the brain and any green colouring; Foods of England says the soup was usually coloured green to mimic turtle fat.
Adapted from British Food History: turtle soup and mock turtle soup (adapting Eliza Acton, Modern Cookery for Private Families, 1845), Miss Leslie, Complete Cookery: Mock Turtle or Calf's Head Soup, Sydney Living Museums: Mock the turtle, and Eliza Acton, Modern Cookery for Private Families (1845): 'Good calf's head soup, not expensive' (transcription).
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