Mock Turtle Soup of Calf's Head

History

Mock turtle soup is an English soup created in the mid-18th century as an imitation of green turtle soup. Real turtle soup — made from green turtles brought to Britain by sailors returning from the West Indies — was in the 18th century a display of wealth. As the turtles were hunted nearly to extinction and prices climbed, real turtle soup became, in food historian Neil Buttery's words, 'out of the question for all but the super-rich, and so mock turtle soup was invented'. Cooks approximated the original using calf's head and organ meats to reproduce its texture and flavour; calf's head was 'an economical addition with plenty of tastes and textures in itself'. Mary Randolph recorded a version titled 'Mock Turtle Soup of Calf's Head' in The Virginia House-Wife (1824), regarded as the first regional American cookbook. Her recipe simmers a whole calf's head with the hock of a ham or pork, onions, thyme, parsley, cloves, nutmeg, pepper and salt until tender, then finishes the strained broth with half a pint of wine and a gill of mushroom catsup, thickening it with browned flour rubbed into butter.

Ingredients

• 1 large calf's head
• 1 gallon water
• 1 hock of ham or piece of nice pork
• 5 onions
• thyme
• parsley
• cloves
• nutmeg
• pepper
• salt
• 1/2 pint wine
• 1 gill mushroom catsup
• 2 spoonsful browned flour
• 4 ounces butter

Instructions

1. Have a large head cleaned nicely without taking off the skin.
2. Divide the chop from the front of the head and take out the tongue, which is best when salted.
3. Put on the head with a gallon of water, the hock of a ham or a piece of nice pork, four or five onions, thyme, parsley, cloves and nutmeg, pepper and salt.
4. Boil all these together until the flesh on the head is quite tender, then take it up and cut all into small pieces, taking the eyes out carefully.
5. Strain the water in which it was boiled, add half a pint of wine and a gill of mushroom catsup, and let it boil slowly till reduced to two quarts.
6. Thicken it with two spoonsful of browned flour rubbed into four ounces of butter.
7. Put the meat in, and after stewing it a short time, serve it up.
8. The eyes are a great delicacy.