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Turtle Soup, with Dried Turtle

A broth made from dried turtle, ham, beef, veal, vegetables, herbs, and spices, finished with egg whites and optional Madeira.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 21 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Turtle Soup, with Dried Turtle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turtle and stock

  1. Soak the turtle in warm water for two days, changing the water four times.

  2. Simmer the turtle in a saucepan for one day.

  3. Combine ham, shin of beef (cut into pieces), veal, soaked turtle, and water in a stock pot. Bring the mixture to a boil and skim the surface as it boils.

  4. Add vegetables, herbs, and spices. Boil gently for eight hours.

  5. Strain the soup through a fine sieve.

Clarify the soup

  1. Cut the turtle into square pieces and set the pieces aside.

  2. Remove fat from the cooled soup and place the fat in a saucepan.

  3. Beat the egg whites and shells with a little cold water. Add the mixture to the soup and stir until it boils.

  4. Simmer for 30 minutes until clear, then remove scum.

  5. Strain through a napkin.

Finish and serve

  1. Reheat the soup, adding lemon juice, salt, and turtle pieces. Bring the soup to a boil.

  2. Add Madeira and caramel for color if desired.

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 + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  3. Clove + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  4. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 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

Dried turtle
Provides the main meat and the characteristic flavor of the soup.
Eggs
Whites and shells bind particles that cloud the stock, clarifying it as they cook.
Shin of beef
Releases gelatin and savory flavor into the stock during long simmering.
Knuckle veal
Adds gelatin and body, giving the stock a fuller, richer texture.
Lean ham
Contributes salty, savory depth to the stock.
Lemon
Its acidity brightens the finished soup and balances its richness.

The step that matters

Clarifying with egg whites. Stir gently until the mixture first boils, then keep the soup at a bare simmer. Vigorous boiling breaks up the egg raft, so it cannot trap the cloudy particles and the soup stays murky.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, beef, veal, clove, pepper, egg, celery):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Winter savoryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, beef, veal, clove, pepper, egg, celery. 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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