Cooter Soup

Cooter, or turtle, soups are of three kinds: a rich turtle stock thickened with roux, a clear broth filled with floating pieces of the white flesh, and a thick chowder enriched with cream, wine, and eggs. All three follow the West Indian model, popular long before Carolina was settled, with hot pepper as seasoning. Cooter is from a West African word, kuta, for turtle. Recipes for turtle soup mean sea turtles. In the late 18th century Charleston’s Henry Laurens