Why it works: Sherry and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,273 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Turtle Soup, to Heat
Ingredients
Directions
Heat the soup
Cover the jar of turtle soup tightly.
Place it in a pan of boiling water.
Let the soup boil gently until hot.
Finish and serve
Pour the soup into a tureen.
Stir in the Madeira or sherry.
Serve immediately, with lemon halves on the side if desired.
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.
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Sherry + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,273 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Madeira or sherry
- Adds aroma, sweetness and depth of flavour to the finished soup.
The step that matters
Let the soup boil gently until hot. Gentle heat warms the soup evenly without scorching it. Strong, prolonged heat can dull delicate aromas, so the wine is added after heating.
“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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