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Turtle Soup

A soup made from turtle meat, thickened with flour, flavored with Madeira wine, butter, sugar, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Thicken the sauce with flour over a slow fire until it has a good color.

  2. Moisten the flour with the liquor.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Skim off the white scum and fat from the surface.

  5. Cut the softer parts of the turtle into 1-2 inch pieces.

  6. Add the turtle pieces to the sauce.

  7. Simmer gently.

  8. Check for doneness.

  9. Remove the herbs from the stock.

  10. Melt the herbs in butter over a slow fire.

  11. Add Madeira wine and sugar.

  12. Boil gently for one hour.

  13. Strain the mixture through a tammy.

  14. Add the strained mixture to the sauce.

  15. Skim off any remaining scum.

  16. Remove the turtle pieces.

  17. Pour the sauce over the turtle pieces.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Madeira wine + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together343 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + madeira winetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together423 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 during the long gentle simmer.
Flour
Thickens the sauce and, cooked slowly, develops a good brown color.
Madeira wine
Adds depth and a rich, slightly sweet aroma to the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying the herbs' flavor into the sauce.
Sugar
Adds a touch of sweetness that balances the wine and savory sauce.

The step that matters

Thicken the sauce with flour over a slow fire. Flour must be cooked slowly and stirred so it browns evenly and thickens without lumps or a raw starchy taste. High heat can scorch it, giving bitterness and uneven color.

“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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