47. WEIRD FOOD: Cuffy Cockroach’s Sea Turtle Soup

Weird Island

People began eating turtle soup in the 1700s, and they kept eating it through the early 1900s. Companies like Campbell’s and Heinz made canned turtle soup (and something called mock turtle soup). And it wasn’t just available. It was a real culinary obsession. In the early days, there would be these big, elaborate parties, called Turtle Frolics, where people would get together to enjoy it. Including a notable Turtle Frolic in Newport, prepared and served by a talented chef named Cuffy Cockroach.

Episode Source Material:

• Reminiscences of Newport - George Champlin Mason - Google Books 1884
• A Newport Rhode Island Turtle Feast, 1767 – Afroculinaria
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• The Turtles of Philadelphia's Culinary Past
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• One of New York's Queer Institutions | New York Times
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• A Shining Thread of Hope: The History of Black Women in America
• Dark Work: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island
• The Negro in Rhode Island: His Past, Present, and Future
• Separate and Sometimes Equal: African Burials in Colonial Newport
• Newport's Turtle Party Slows Hectic Yule Pace - Los Angeles Times
• 1776 Season 1 Episode 4
• Colonial Dames and Good Wives | Alice Morse Earle | 1895
• 50 Years of Christmas in Newport
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• Our Taste For Turtle Soup Nearly Wiped Out Terrapins. Then Prohibition Saved Them : The Salt : NPR
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• Primer 0013: So Rich and So Green: The History of Turtle Soup