Name: Clear Turtle Soup
Ingredients: 1 lb sun-dried turtle; ½ lb neck of beef; ½ lb lean veal; 2 egg whites and shells; 5 quarts good stock; 2 onions, chopped; 2 carrots, chopped; 1 turnip, chopped; 1 strip of celery, chopped; 1 bouquet garni (parsley, thyme, bay leaf, basil, marjoram); 12 peppercorns; 2 cloves; 1 blade of mace (tied in muslin); ⅓ cup sherry; 1 tablespoon lemon juice; 2 teaspoons coarse sea salt

Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

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.

Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,053 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,002 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Turnip + celerytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,418 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Sun-dried turtle: Provides the main meat and body of the soup after long soaking and simmering.
Egg whites and shells: Clarify the stock by trapping fine particles as they coagulate, leaving a clearer soup.
Neck of beef: Adds meaty flavour and body to the stock during the long simmer.
Lean veal: Adds mild meaty flavour and body to the stock once ground and clarified.
Sherry: Adds aroma and a rounded, slightly sweet, nutty note to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Clarifying with egg whites. Whisk the egg white and meat mixture until it reaches a boil, then simmer gently without stirring. Stirring or boiling hard breaks up the forming raft, so it cannot trap cloudy particles and the soup stays murky.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, veal, egg, carrot, turnip, celery, parsley):

Leekfits better
Parsnipfits better
Chivefits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, veal, egg, carrot, turnip, celery, parsley. 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.

Clear Turtle Soup