Essentials: Worthmore Mock Turtle Soup, Cincinnati, Ohio
A sweet-and-tangy taste of old Cincinnati
Mock turtle soup isn’t as popular as it used to be, but the stew of lean beef, hard-boiled eggs, lemon or vinegar, and various seasonings still has fans in Cincinnati. No wonder. It has the consistency of Cincinnati-style chili and the sweet-and-tangy flavor profile popular with the immigrants from northwestern Germany who came to Ohio en masse in the mid-1800s.
You can find it, served with a lemon slice and the same oyster crackers we pair with our chili, at old-school joints like Quatman Cafe, The Hitching Post, and Ron’s Roost. Or you can stock your pantry with canned soup from Worthmore, the last business of its kind. Rival Stegner’s closed in 2005, bringing an end to a decades-long feud that began after Phillip Hock left his brother-in-law Clarence Stegner’s meat counter and founded Worthmore in 1918. (The companies even sponsored competing amateur baseball teams at one point—both called the Turtles.) —Dann Woellert
Dann Woellert is a Cincinnati food etymologist. He curates the blog Dann Woellert the Food Etymologist and has written five books about Cincinnati’s favorite foods.