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Turtle Soup

A soup made from turtle meat, salt pork, butter, onions, tomatoes, and various seasonings, simmered and served with bread and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Chippewa Falls, Wis. Episcopal church. Ladies aid society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 37 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turtle

  1. Turn the turtle on his back, cut off the head so that the blood will all run out.

  2. Let it remain over night.

  3. Lay it on its back again, open it on the sides, take all the meat and eggs out and let them lay in water twenty-four hours.

  4. Boil the turtle meat in salt and water; when about half cooked take it out and put away to cool.

Make the soup

  1. Add to the broth two slices of salt pork cut in small pieces, two tablespoonfuls of flour, two of butter (browned nicely), one small bay leaf, three cloves, one onion (cut fine), a little pepper, nutmeg and parsley, the yolks of six hard boiled eggs (whole), a little lemon juice, cayenne, black pepper and salt.

  2. Cut the turtle meat in small squares and put in the broth again, boil until well done.

  3. Five minutes before serving add one can of mushrooms and a glass of sherry wine.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1263Calories
59 gProtein
48 gFat
151 gCarbs

Counts 18 of 20 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 18 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Pork100g cooked242
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Bay Leaf1 leaf (0.6g)2
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Soupnot in our table0
Vealnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Chippewa Falls, Wis. Episcopal church. Ladies aid society. [from old catalog]. 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. See the original page.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  4. Pork + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,843 recipes

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

  5. Pork + vealtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,930 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

What each ingredient does

Turtle meat (in the method)
Forms the main body of the soup and gives it its substance.
Salt pork
Adds savory fat and flavor to the broth.
Butter
Browned, it adds a nutty aroma and richer flavor to the soup base.
Flour
Thickens the broth as it cooks with the butter.
Hard boiled eggs
Yolks enrich the soup and add body and richness.

The step that matters

Browning the butter and flour. Cooking the butter with flour until nicely browned builds the color and nutty flavor of the base, and stirring prevents lumps and scorching.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, flour, onion, butter, veal, milk, tomato):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Capersfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, flour, onion, butter, veal, milk, tomato. 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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