Black Turtle Bean Soup

History

"Turtle Bean Soup" is recorded in Martha McCulloch-Williams's "Dishes & Beverages of the Old South" (1913). A quart of black turtle beans is picked, washed, soaked overnight in three quarts of cold water and boiled next morning in that same soaking water. Once boiling, three sliced onions, a scraped and cut carrot, a stalk or so of celery, three sprigs of parsley and a tomato go in, and the whole boils slowly four to five hours until the beans are tender, topped up with cold water as it reduces.

The historical record does not document a specific earlier origin for this particular soup.

"Dishes & Beverages of the Old South" is a mixture of recipes and plantation reminiscence. McCulloch-Williams was a white writer born near Clarksville, Tennessee, who grew up on a plantation before the Civil War, and the book's affection for that world goes unexamined in it: its dedication is "to our Mammys," and its opening holds that being "the best fed people in the world" let "we of the South Country... put up the best fight in history." Much of the cooking it records is the work of enslaved and formerly enslaved Black women the book does not name.

Ingredients

• 1 quart black turtle beans
• 3 quarts cold water
• 3 whole onions
• 1 whole carrot
• 1 stalk celery
• 3 sprigs parsley
• 1 whole tomato
• 1 quart soup stock
• 1 whole bay leaf
• 1 slice lemon
• 1 slice hard-boiled egg
• 1 tablespoon sherry wine
• cold water

Instructions

1. Pick and wash the black turtle beans clean. Soak overnight in three quarts cold water.
2. Next morning, put the beans on to boil in the soaking water. When it boils, add the sliced onions, scraped and cut carrot, celery stalk, parsley sprigs, and fresh or canned tomato.
3. Boil slowly for four to five hours, until the beans are very tender. Fill up with cold water as it wastes in the kettle.
4. When the beans are very soft, strain everything through a fine colander, pressing the beans and vegetables through. Add a quart of very good soup stock and a bay leaf, then boil up hard for half a minute.
5. To serve: place a slice of lemon, a slice of hard-boiled egg, and a tablespoonful of sherry wine in each soup plate, then add the soup.