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Turtle Soup

A soup made with turtle meat, herbs, and small quenelles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 herb base

  1. Combine herbs, 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. Rub the mixture through a tammy to create a puree.

  5. Add the puree to the soup.

Finish the soup

  1. Introduce a little crystallized soluble cayenne pepper.

  2. Add turtle pieces and fins to the soup.

  3. Boil the soup for 15 minutes.

  4. Skim off any foam that rises to the surface.

  5. Check seasoning and adjust if necessary.

Prepare and serve

  1. Divide the soup into four-quart basins.

  2. Add equal amounts of fat and small quenelles to each basin.

  3. Mould the quenelles into small balls.

  4. Roll the quenelles in flour.

  5. Poach the quenelles.

  6. Warm the soup.

  7. Add the quenelles just 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

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

Turtle pieces and fins
Provide the main meat and gelatinous body of the soup.
Hard-boiled egg yolks
Bind the quenelle mixture into a tender, cohesive texture when poached.
Hen fillets
Form the soft, delicate body of the quenelles.
Winter savory, marjoram, lemon-thyme
Supply the aromatic herbal flavour that defines the broth.
Broth
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavours of the soup.

The step that matters

Skim off foam while boiling. Foam rising during the boil carries impurities that can cloud the soup and taint its flavour, so it should be removed promptly and thoroughly.

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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