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Turtle Consommé

A clear turtle consommé made with turtle head, tongue, sherry, herbs, and served with cayenne and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Basil and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 688 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Turtle Consommé

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turtle

  1. Press the turtle head until cold, then cut off the glutinous part and cut it into 1‑inch squares.

  2. If needed, add part of the tongue.

Make the soup

  1. In a stewpan, combine the turtle pieces with both quarts of consommé, sherry, basil, marjoram, salt, and sugar.

  2. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring until it reaches boiling point.

Serve

  1. Serve with cayenne and lemon.

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. Basil + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Marjoram + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together957 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Basil + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,823 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Sherry + marjoramtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together170 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Sherry + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,273 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Turtle head (in the method)
Provides the glutinous meat and gelatin that give the soup body and a rich mouthfeel.
Consommé
Forms the clear, flavourful liquid base of the soup.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the soup.

The step that matters

Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring until it reaches boiling point. Stirring as the liquid heats keeps the turtle pieces from sticking and scorching on the base of the stewpan, and bringing it to a gentle simmer helps the gelatin dissolve into the broth.

Swap the basil

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, marjoram, sugar, lemon):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Sagefits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Basilthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, marjoram, sugar, lemon. 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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