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Turtle Soup

A soup made from turtle meat simmered with herbs, spices, butter, flour, wine, lemon, and force‑meat balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turtle

  1. Boil the turtle in 5 quarts of water until very tender.

  2. Remove the bones and cut the meat into small pieces.

Make the soup

  1. Season with marjoram, sweet basil, thyme, parsley, salt, pepper, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice tied in muslin.

  2. Stir browned flour into melted butter and add to the soup.

  3. Ensure there are 3 quarts of soup.

Finish and serve

  1. Fifteen minutes before serving, add green fat, wine, lemon slices, and force-meat balls.

  2. Simmer for 5 minutes, remove lemon peel, and serve.

  3. Add a slice of ham if the turtle is not fat.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Marjoram + basiltop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  3. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Turtle meat
Forms the main body of the soup and gives it its rich, meaty flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and carries the browned flour, giving the soup body and a smooth mouthfeel.
Browned flour
Thickens the soup and adds a toasted, nutty flavour.
Wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich broth.
Lemon
Adds acidity and fresh citrus aroma to balance the richness.

The step that matters

Adding the browned flour and butter. Stirring the flour into melted butter before adding it to the soup helps prevent lumps, so the thickening blends evenly into the liquid.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, marjoram, basil, thyme, parsley, pepper, nutmeg):

  1. Winter savoryfits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, marjoram, basil, thyme, parsley, pepper, nutmeg. 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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