No. 1093

Turtle Stewed a la Foster

Ragout de Tortue a la Foster

Cut the turtle meat into one inch and a quarter squares; fry them in butter, and sprinkle over with flour, stir well, then moisten with broth, adding a bunch of parsley garnished with thyme and bay leaf, small onions, a piece of bacon cut into three-sixteenth inch squares, and mushrooms cut the same; season with salt, black and red pepper, this should not be confused with cayenne pepper, they are entirely different (No. 168); when the stew is done and ready to serve, pour in a little Madeira wine, suppress the parsley, reduce it properly and serve.

FISH (Poisson).

← No. 1092 Green Turtle Baked-Small Green Turtle No. 1094 Angel Fish a la Bahama →

For the Modern Kitchen Do not make this as written.

Ranhofer's ragout is a straightforward brown stew, but its principal ingredient is now a protected species and cannot lawfully be bought, sold or cooked. The notes below explain the terms and the legal position rather than adapting the method.

The turtleThe green turtle (Chelonia mydas) is listed as endangered or threatened throughout its range and is protected under CITES and, in the United States, the Endangered Species Act. Trade in the meat, shell, eggs and calipash is prohibited; the dish cannot be made as written anywhere the species is protected, which is effectively everywhere. If you want a stew of this character, use a current recipe built on another meat.
Why no substitution is givenNineteenth-century cooks prized green turtle for its gelatinous fat and calipee, qualities no ordinary butcher's meat reproduces. Swapping in veal or chicken produces a different dish, and the sourcing and handling of the original is the part that is off the table.
"Red pepper" versus cayenneRanhofer's aside is unusual: he insists red pepper and cayenne are "entirely different" and refers the reader to his No. 168 for the distinction. What that entry actually specifies is not on this page, so the difference he had in mind cannot be reconstructed from the recipe alone; the stew is seasoned with black pepper and red pepper together.
"Suppress the parsley"A literal rendering of the French supprimer: remove and discard the bouquet of parsley, thyme and bay before finishing. Ranhofer's English is full of these calques.
"Reduce it properly"After the Madeira goes in the sauce is boiled down by the cook's judgement. No time, volume or target consistency is given, which is usual in this book: it was written for trained cooks reading the pan rather than a clock.
Scale and yieldNo quantities appear at all; the only measurements are the cutting dimensions (one and a quarter inch squares of turtle, three-sixteenth inch dice of bacon and mushroom). As written it is a method rather than a formula, and no household yield can be inferred from it.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchens at Delmonico's in New York, and The Epicurean (1894) records the restaurant's repertoire at a moment when green turtle was among the defining luxuries of American public dining. Turtles were shipped live from the Caribbean and Florida, kept in tanks in hotel cellars, and butchered to yield soup, steaks, baked dishes and ragouts like this one; the section this recipe sits in runs through several such preparations before turning to fish. The "a la Foster" tag most likely honours a patron or a colleague, as many Delmonico's dishes did, though the specific person is not documented in the book. The heavy nineteenth-century trade in green turtle for exactly this kind of cooking was a major contributing cause of the population collapse that led to the species' protection, which is why the page is now a historical document rather than a working recipe.