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Turtle Soup

A soup made from turtle meat simmered with vegetables and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the turtle in 3 pints of cold water and cook until tender.

  2. Strain the broth and remove the meat from the bones.

  3. Chop the meat finely and return it to the broth.

Season and simmer

  1. Season with salt and pepper.

  2. Add the chopped cabbage, onion, potato, celery, and tomato.

  3. Simmer slowly until done.

  4. Finally, add the whole cloves and allspice.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  3. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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, which becomes tender through long cooking in the broth.
Cabbage
Adds body and a mild vegetable flavor to the broth as it simmers.
Potato
Thickens the soup slightly as its starch breaks down during simmering.
Tomato
Adds acidity and savory depth to the broth.
Whole cloves
Contribute a warm, aromatic spice flavor to the simmering broth.

The step that matters

Simmer slowly until done. Gentle simmering keeps the broth clear and lets the turtle meat become tender. A hard boil toughens meat proteins and can make the broth cloudy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, cabbage, potato, celery, tomato, clove, allspice):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, cabbage, potato, celery, tomato, clove, allspice. 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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