Name: Turtle Soup
Ingredients: 4 ounces fresh butter; 3 pounds raw ham, sliced; 40 pounds leg of beef and knuckles of veal; 4 old hens, fillets removed; fleshy pieces of turtle (except those for entrees); head and fins of turtle; 1 bottle Madeira; 4 quarts good stock; 1 pottle mushrooms

Why it works: Beef and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,232 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Spread the bottom of an 18‑gallon stockpot with butter.
Layer in the ham, beef, veal, and hens.
Add the fleshy pieces of turtle, head, and fins.
Moisten with Madeira and stock.
Add mushrooms and bring to a boil.

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.

Beef + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,232 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Beef + vealtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,784 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Veal + mushroomtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,446 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Ham + beeftop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,729 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter: Enriches the base and helps keep the ingredients from sticking to the pot.
Ham: Adds savory, salty depth to the broth.
Beef and veal: Release gelatin and savory flavor into the stock as they cook.
Turtle: Provides the main meat and characteristic flavor of the soup.
Madeira: Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the liquid.

“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.