Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1884 — How to Make Turtle Soup. [ARTICLE]

How to Make Turtle Soup.

A well known authority on the subject writes: As green turtle, when prepared, can be kept for weeks, and dealers are not willing to retail them, the best way is to get a small Eve turtle weighing about twenty-five pounds, hang by its hind legs or fins, cut off its head and let it bleed all day; then with a sharp knife part the two shells; remove the intestines; take all the meat from the shells, bones, and fins; cut each shell in four pieces, and plunge, 'for a moment only, the fins and shells in boiling water to take the horny skin off. Then make a broth as follows: Cut in pieces and put in a stock-pot twenty pounds of lean soup-beef, salt, and six gallons of water; boil slowly and scum well; add carrots, onions, four leeks, two heads of celery, a bunch of parsley, garnished with four bayleaves, thyme, basilic, and sage in proportion, a handful of whole peppers, some allspice, a few cloves, and a few blades of mace, all tied together in a small cloth; boil six hours, and pass the broth through a sieve into a large tin pan; use some of this broth diluted with water in a sause pan to cook the shells and fins; and some in another saucepan to cook the meat; the shells require about an hour, and the meat not more than twenty minutes. When they are done take the shells, meat, and fins out of the broth and pass the latter through a fine strainer into another saucepan; remove all bones from the shells, fins, and meat, and cut in. small square pieces; mix the whole and put it in a dish. This is a preliminary and essential preparation; for a larger turtle use more meat, etc. For soup for eight persons: Thicken thres quarts of the broth with four ounces of flour browned in butter; boil half an hour, skim well; add half a pint of sherry wine, a gill of port wine? a pinch of red pepper, and enough of the turtle; boil ten minutes, skim again, and serve with slices of pared lemon on a plate. To preserve what is left of the turtle: Reduce to a consistency the rest of the broth, add the turtle, boil five minutes, put in quart tin cans, which should not be quite filled, and when Cold pour into each can over the turtle some melted lard to keep out the air; set in a cool larder for further use. A quart is enough for eight persons.