Skip to main content
Main

Turtle Soup

A hearty soup made from veal, turtle meat, herbs, vegetables, and ham, simmered until rich.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turtle

  1. Cut around the under shell of the turtle and separate the callipée from the callipash.

  2. Remove the gut without breaking the gall and set aside the hearts in a basin of water.

  3. Scald the head, callipée, and soft parts of the callipash, removing any skin.

  4. Boil until tender, then cut into squares and set aside for the soup.

Make the soup

  1. Chop the veal and place it in a large pot with the turtle meat and herbs.

  2. Add carrots, onions, ham, peppercorns, salt, spices, and bay leaves.

  3. Stew until it takes on the color of espagnole.

  4. Add the fins and hearts 30 minutes before serving, along with half water and half beef stock.

  5. Skim the soup and add a bunch of parsley, boiling gently like consomme.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Carrot + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,606 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Veal
Provides rich body and gelatin, giving the soup its substance and mouthfeel.
Lean ham
Adds savory, salty depth that seasons the stock as it stews.
Beef stock
Adds meaty liquid that deepens flavor and helps form the broth.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and aromatic flavor to the stewed base.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and color to the stewed base.

The step that matters

Skim the soup. Skimming removes foam and fat that rise during simmering, keeping the broth clear and clean-tasting. Gentle boiling keeps it clear, since vigorous boiling clouds the liquid.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, meat, carrot, onion, ham, beef):

  1. Celeryfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, meat, carrot, onion, ham, beef. 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.

More turtle soup recipes

Mock 441Green 33Clear 6 See all 139 →

You might also like

Beef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCarrot SoupCarrot Soup134 recipes