Green Turtle Soup
Green turtle soup is a Victorian-era classic that rewards patience, built on a long simmered broth from the coarse meat and bones. The recipe here is adapted from a Project Gutenberg text and gives you two textures in one bowl: tender shredded meat in a flour-thickened stock, and small fried balls of spiced turtle forcemeat. Lemon and Madeira go in at the end, so their sharpness and sweetness stay clear.
Instructions
Rub the minced turtle meat, hard-boiled yolks, butter, oyster liquor if using, cayenne, mace, sugar and salt together until you have a smooth paste. Work in one of the eggs.
Shape the paste into small balls. Dip each one in the remaining beaten egg, then roll it in cracker crumbs, and pan-fry the balls in butter until they are cooked through and browned. These are the forcemeat balls for the finished soup.
Remove the entrails from the turtle. Cut the coarser parts of the meat and the bones into pieces, and set the finer meat aside separately.
Put the coarse pieces in a pot with the onions, sweet herbs, pepper and salt. Cover with 4 quarts (4 liters) of water and simmer for 4 hours, then strain the broth and discard the solids.
In a separate pot, simmer the finer meat and the green fat in 2 quarts of water for 1 hour. If the turtle contains eggs, simmer them in water for 4 hours.
Reheat the strained broth and add the finer meat. Thicken with brown flour and simmer gently for 1 hour.
Stir in the simmered eggs and the forcemeat balls, then the lemon juice and Madeira. Serve hot.
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