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Turtle Soup

A soup of turtle meat, herbs, and quenelles, finished with sherry and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 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

Make the herb base

  1. Combine winter savory, marjoram, lemon-thyme, parsley, green onions, green shallots, and mushroom trimmings in a pot with broth.

  2. Stew the herbs for about 1 hour, then strain through a fine sieve into a puree.

  3. Add the puree to the soup and season with crystallized cayenne pepper.

Cook the turtle

  1. Boil the turtle pieces and fins in the soup for 15 minutes, skimming off any foam that rises.

  2. Ensure the seasoning is balanced and adjust if necessary.

  3. Mould the quenelles into small balls, roll in flour, and poach them.

  4. Divide the turtle into four-quart basins, adding equal amounts of scalded fat and small quenelles.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, warm the soup and add sherry and lemon juice before serving.

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. Winter savory + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together780 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Winter savory + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together455 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  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
Provides the main meat and gelatinous body of the soup.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Bind the quenelle mixture and give it a soft, rich texture.
Hens fillets
Supply the delicate protein that forms the body of the quenelles.
Sherry or madeira
Adds aroma and a touch of sweetness and depth at the end.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the finished soup.

The step that matters

Skimming the foam while boiling the turtle. Foam rising during boiling carries impurities that cloud the broth and spoil its flavour, so it must be removed as it forms.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (winter savory, marjoram, lemon, thyme, parsley, shallot, mushroom):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against winter savory, marjoram, lemon, thyme, parsley, shallot, mushroom. 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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