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Genuine Turtle Soup

A soup made with turtle, beef, veal, ham, onions, carrot, cloves, pepper, and water, simmered slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Genuine Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Grease the bottom of a large soup pot with butter.

  2. Layer the beef, veal, and ham in the pot.

  3. Add the onions, carrot, cloves, pepper, and 1 pint of water.

  4. Place the pot over a brisk fire.

  5. Stir frequently until a brown glaze forms.

Simmer and strain

  1. Add the water used to boil the turtle to fill the pot.

  2. Add more water if necessary.

  3. Reduce heat to low.

  4. Let it cook slowly for 2 hours.

  5. Skim the surface.

  6. Strain the liquid.

  7. Add 1 quart of water to the meat.

  8. Boil for another hour.

  9. Strain this mixture into the previously strained liquid.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

Turtle
Provides the main body of meat and the characteristic flavor of the soup.
Beef
Adds savory meat flavor and body to the stock as it cooks down.
Veal
Contributes gelatin from its bones and connective tissue, giving the soup a richer texture.
Ham
Adds salty, smoky depth that seasons the broth as it simmers.
Onions
Release sweetness and aromatic flavor as they cook and brown with the meat.

The step that matters

Stir frequently until a brown glaze forms. Meat and onions left still over a brisk fire can scorch before browning. Frequent stirring spreads the heat and browns the sugars and proteins evenly, building deep flavor in the stock.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, ham, butter, onion, carrot, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, ham, butter, onion, carrot, 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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