Celebrate Charleston Food and Wine – Enjoy Mock Turtle Soup!
“HOW MUCH DO YOU OFFER ME FOR THIS GOOD COOK? SHE IS AN EXCELLENT COOK: SHE CAN MAKE THREE KINDS OF FAKE TURTLE SOUP WITH MEAT, POULTRY OR FISH”
The above is an excerpt from the Charleston, SC Courier of March 22, 1865 recounting the Freedmen’s Jubilee Parade, which featured a black man on a float with a woman and two children whom he intended to auction “for good Confederate money “. He played the role of him with vigor and conviction, eliciting much joy and jubilation from the black-faced crowd.
I have always been a fan of turtle soup. My parents used to visit Doc and Nananne in New Orleans (my great uncles) and they would come back with stories about delicious turtle soup. They brought me two cans of turtle soup for me to try. The rich, dark stew with a hint of dry sherry was absolute heaven for my 8 year old palate. I have never forgotten it. And so, since I couldn’t attend the Grand Opening, I decided to celebrate Food and Wine by recreating that flavor of my childhood.
But first, a bit of turtle soup history. For many years, turtle soup was considered the best of fine dining. At the turn of the 20th century, the Villa Marguerita, Charleston’s finest hotel at the time, had a $20 bowl of turtle soup on the menu. Turtle meat was considered an exotic delicacy because the meat comes from 5 different places on the turtle, all with different tastes. A large snapping turtle is said to contain seven different types of meat, each reminiscent of pork, chicken, beef, shrimp, veal, fish, or goat. Locally, this dish of English extraction did not survive in Charleston homes until the 20th century. Although Charlestonians continued to hire black cooks, few were trained to prepare Eurocentric meals, so the surviving forms of food we think of as Lowcountry generally have their roots in Africa, but not turtle soup.
For many years, sea turtles were the meat of choice, so real meat was out of the question. Where to find turtle meat today? Of course, cooters are ubiquitous, but I live in an apartment and wearing them would be a problem. I’m not sure I’m ready to grab the head, cut it off, and hang it upside down to drain. The high cost of sea turtle meat led to the creation of Mock Turtle Soup. Using the same rich broth and a variety of meats in the broth, Mock Turtle Soup mimics not only the taste but also the texture and look of real soup. As an aside, I used chicken livers cut into bite-size pieces, and that dark flavor is absolutely fine, but you can choose to use dark chicken meat, even surimi (artificial crab), or mild fish fillets for this. I plan on using ground venison or bison next time instead of the beef.
Mock Turtle Soup – My Recipe
1. To a quarter and a half of water add one pound of raw lean ground beef and one half pound of small sliced raw chicken livers, three bay leaves, 1 teaspoon salt.
Bring to a boil.
2. Take half a stick of butter heated with flour, brown to make a rue to thicken. Set aside.
3. Fine and medium dice:
a yellow onion
a red bell pepper
Two stalks of celery.
Put them in two tablespoons of butter over medium high heat for five minutes, and then high until the vegetables are cooked with a charcoal. Add this to the broth. Deglaze the pan with dry sherry, scrape up bits and throw everything into the pot along with
A can of beef broth
a cup of tomato sauce
A large can of crushed tomatoes
Stir everything together and bring to a boil. add to this
1 teaspoon allspice and thyme, 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
Juice of ½ lemon.
4 shell eggs
Simmer everything together for at least 45 minutes, 1 1/2 hours is better. Remove the hard-boiled eggs and macerate. Add back to thicken soup. Add rue (step 2) to thicken to stew consistency.
To serve, serve the soup piping hot and garnish with parsley and dry sherry.
