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Dried Turtle Soup

A soup made by soaking dried turtle, simmering it, and adding sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Dried Turtle Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turtle

  1. Soak the dried turtle in cold water for at least three days, changing the water daily.

  2. When the turtle has expanded to four times its original size, cut it into 1-inch pieces.

Cook and serve

  1. In a large pot, combine the turtle pieces with 3 quarts of water and simmer for 12 hours.

  2. Add 1 glass of sherry for each quart of soup before serving.

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

What each ingredient does

Dried turtle
Forms the main body of the soup, and its long soak rehydrates it so it becomes tender enough to eat.
Sherry
Adds aromatic depth and a mellow acidity that brightens the rich, long-cooked broth.

The step that matters

Soaking the dried turtle. Soaking must run for the full three days with daily water changes. Dried meat rehydrates slowly, and fresh water removes residual salt and impurities, so the meat softens fully before the long simmer.

“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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