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Turtle Soup

A broth-based soup with turtle meat, herbs, and quenelles of hen fillets and egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 flavouring

  1. Combine winter savory, marjoram, lemon-thyme, parsley, green onions, green shallots, and mushroom trimmings in a pot.

  2. Moisten the mixture with 1 quart of broth.

  3. Stew for about 1 hour.

  4. Pass the mixture through a tammy to create a puree.

  5. Add the puree to the soup.

Cook the soup

  1. Stir in a little cayenne pepper.

  2. Boil the turtle pieces and fins in the soup for 15 minutes.

  3. Skim off any foam that rises.

  4. Check the seasoning.

  5. Adjust the seasoning as needed.

Assemble and serve

  1. Divide the soup into four-quart basins.

  2. Add scalded fat to each basin.

  3. Add small quenelles made from hen fillets and egg yolks to each basin.

  4. Mould the quenelles into small balls.

  5. Roll the balls in flour.

  6. Poach the balls.

  7. Warm the soup before serving.

  8. Add a small glass of sherry.

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. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Winter savory + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together780 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Winter savory + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together455 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Thyme + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Marjoram + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked 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

Mushroom trimmings
Adds earthy, savoury depth to the broth as it stews.
Hen fillets
Form the quenelles, giving them a tender, delicate texture when poached.
Egg yolks
Bind the quenelle mixture and add richness and body.
Broth
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of the whole soup.

The step that matters

Poaching the quenelle balls. Quenelles made with egg yolk are delicate and can break apart or toughen if the liquid boils hard. Poaching them gently in barely simmering soup keeps them tender and intact, since egg proteins set with too much heat.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (winter savory, marjoram, lemon, thyme, parsley, shallot, mushroom):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Chivefits better
  4. 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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