I have seen the words "mock-turtle soup" a thousand times while skimming through various recipe books, but they have never inspired me to investigate further. I had "actual" turtle soup once in Ocalla, Florida, and though it was good, it was not good enough to interest me in attempting to approximate it in absence of the unfortunate turtle that gave it its flavor. But tonight, I am feeling saucy, and the question I can't get out of my head is this: What is a mock-turtle?
Based on a hot tip from a sympathetic party, I will begin my investigation at smitten kitchen (http://smittenkitchen.com/). Perhaps mock-turtle soup is not as popular today as it was in the 50s when most of my cookbooks were published, this site's search engine gave me the digital equivalent of looking at me like I am stupid. Touche, smitten kitchen, touche--you've won this time.
I guess it's back to the drawing board (aka: google.com).
Typing "mock-turtle soup recipe" into google gets an immediate hit from "cooks.com", a site I visit often--though she can be a fickle lover (such as with the 'Shepard's Pie debacle' of '09), she is usually steadfast and reliable.
According to the site's top recipe (http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1748,149175-233204,00.html), a mock turtle is ground beef seasoned with ketchup, Worcestershire, sherry, sugar, cloves, allspice, and bayleaves. This mysterious combination of ingredients evokes numerous questions and bizarre speculations about what real turtles are made of, but they will have to wait till next Saturday.
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