Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓
Turtle Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the herb base
Combine equal parts winter savory, marjoram, and lemon-thyme with parsley, green onions, green shallots, and mushrooms.
Moisten the herb mixture with 1 quart of broth.
Stew the herbs for 1 hour.
Rub the herb mixture through a fine sieve into a puree.
Add the herb puree to the soup.
Season and cook the soup
Introduce a little crystallized soluble cayenne pepper.
Boil the turtle pieces and fins in the soup for 15 minutes.
Skim off any foam that rises.
Check the seasoning.
Adjust the seasoning as necessary.
Prepare the quenelles and serve
Divide the turtle soup into four-quart basins.
Add equal amounts of scalded fat to each basin.
Add small quenelles to each basin.
Mould the quenelles into small balls.
Roll the quenelles in flour.
Poach the quenelles.
Warm the turtle soup before serving.
Add a small glass of sherry.
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.
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Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,225 recipes
Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).
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Winter savory + thymetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together780 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Winter savory + marjoramtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together455 recipes
Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
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Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,057 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,979 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Herbs
- Winter savory, marjoram and lemon-thyme, pureed, give the soup its aromatic flavor.
- Turtle pieces
- Provide the main meat and body of the soup as they simmer.
- Fat from turtle
- Adds richness and a rounded mouthfeel to the finished soup.
- Hen fillets and egg yolks
- Bind the quenelles, giving them a tender, set texture when poached.
The step that matters
Poach the quenelles. Poaching gently below a boil keeps the egg-yolk and hen mixture tender and prevents it from breaking apart or becoming rubbery.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (winter savory, marjoram, lemon, thyme, parsley, shallot, mushroom):
- Leekfits better
- Arrowrootfits better
- Chivefits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against winter savory, marjoram, lemon, thyme, parsley, shallot, mushroom. 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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