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Of Hashes

A hearty hash made from turtle lungs, white meat, force‑meat balls, egg‑balls, and seasoned broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 68,474 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Of Hashes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meats and shell

  1. Season the lungs and white meat with pepper and salt, then stew gently for 15 minutes.

  2. Prepare force-meat balls from the white part of the turtle.

  3. If the turtle has eggs, scald them; if not, use 12 hard-boiled egg yolks to make egg-balls.

  4. Prepare the callapash (deep shell) by sealing the edges with paste and seasoning the inside with Cayenne pepper, salt, and a little Madeira wine.

  5. Bake the callapash for 30 minutes.

  6. Add the lungs, white meat, force-meat, and egg-balls to the callapash, then bake for another 30 minutes.

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, combine the bones and veal broth with an onion, sweet herbs, and mace; stew for 1 hour.

  2. Strain the broth, thicken with flour and butter, and add ½ cup Madeira wine; stew for another 30 minutes.

  3. Season the soup with Cayenne pepper and salt to taste.

Refill and finish

  1. Run a knife between the meat and shell of the callapash, fill it with force-meat, and season with chopped sweet herbs, shallot, Cayenne pepper, salt, and a little Madeira wine.

  2. Seal the edges with paste and bake for 1.5 hours.

  3. In a stew-pan, combine the guts and maw with a little broth, sweet herbs, and mace; thicken with butter rolled in flour and stew gently for 30 minutes.

  4. Season with Cayenne pepper and salt, then beat the yolks of 2 eggs into the mixture.

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. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  2. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  5. Meat + oniontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,364 recipes

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

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 lungs and white meat
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender through gentle stewing.
Veal broth
Provides the liquid base that carries the flavour of the soup.
Flour and butter
Thicken the broth into a smooth, body-rich sauce.
Egg yolks
Bind the egg-balls and enrich the mixture as it sets.
Madeira wine
Adds aromatic depth and a rich, sweet note to the seasoning and broth.

The step that matters

Thickening the broth with flour and butter. Flour must be cooked with the butter before or as it meets the hot liquid, or it forms lumps and leaves a raw, pasty taste. Stirring steadily while it simmers gives a smooth, glossy sauce.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, meat, egg, madeira wine, veal, onion, flour):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, meat, egg, madeira wine, veal, onion, flour. 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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