Real Turtle Soup (potage à la tortue)

About the dish

Real turtle soup was the finest festive soup of the bourgeois dinner parties of the 1800s and early 1900s. Erken describes the entire process from live animal to finished soup. The recipe is reproduced here as a cultural-historical document – the sea turtle is today an endangered, protected species, and the dish cannot legally be made. Use "mock turtle soup" made from calf's head instead.

How to make it

1. 1

   Slaughter (historical description)

   The turtle should be fat and completely fresh. Lay it on its back on a sloping table or hang it up by the hind legs; place a loop around the neck when the head sticks out, pull out the head and chop it off. Hang the body immediately over a vessel so the blood drains off, for 2–3 hours.

2. 2

   Cutting up

   Lay the turtle on its back and cut off the belly shell without damaging the gallbladder, as that ruins the meat. Loosen the fleshy parts on each side of the breastbone and set them aside in water (used for forcemeat or fricandeau). Cut off the flippers, remove and discard the innards, but save all the green fat. Remove the meat from the back shell. Divide the back shell into 6 and the breast shell into 4 pieces.

3. 3

   Blanching

   Place the shell and flippers in cold water for ½ hour. Then set them over the heat in enough boiling water to cover, and bring slowly to a boil. Lift out the flippers when they are firm enough for the skin to be pulled off; boil the shells for 6 minutes and scrape off the meat.

4. 4

   Long simmering

   Cover the shell and flippers with enough cold water to stand above them. Add yellow and white roots, a bouquet of soup herbs and a little turtle herbs. Simmer for 5½ hours.

5. 5

   Clean the meat

   Remove all the meat from the bones, let it cool, trim it and cut it into small squares. The meat is served in the soup together with the green fat.

6. 6

   Poach the fat

   Poach the green fat, that is, "cook without boiling": the stock or the salted water must not reach the boiling point, but stay as close to it as possible. Cut the fat into slices afterward.

7. 7

   Cook the soup

   Use some beef stock alongside. Pour the stock from the shell and flippers over the head and bones. For 1.5 kg of shell and flippers, allow 1 liter of water and stock. Once it has come to a boil and been skimmed, add the salt, carrots, leek, celery, parsley, onion, cloves, marjoram, sage and thyme.

8. 8

   Season and strain

   Add the lemon, turtle herbs and peppercorns to the soup 1 hour before it is strained. Strain the soup through a straining cloth.

9. 9

   Serving

   Add the diced meat, the poached fat and 1 dl of good Madeira. Milk punch is often served with turtle soup.