Soft-Shelled Turtle Hamburger

Also called Suppon Burger (Anime)

Chef: Hisako Arato
In the manga: Chapter 74
In the anime: Episode 27
Cuisine and type: Chinese, Western, Hamburger

Soft-Shelled Turtle Hamburger is a dish made by Hisako Arato against Akira Hayama during the 43rd Annual Tōtsuki Autumn Election's Main Tournament: Quarterfinals.

Hisako Arato sought to create a hamburger that "vehemently rocks human instinct" by creating a dish that was both richly infused with the flavors of the soft-shelled turtle and that strongly emphasized the gelatinous nature of the meat to stimulate the soft palate.

The patty was made with the boiled meat and innards of a freshly slaughtered soft-shelled turtle mixed with the turtle's blood, ground pork, and turtle shell powder and was wrapped in pork crepiné and pan fried. The patty was also smothered with a sauce made from the thickened turtle dashi, schisandra fruit, kinshinsai, ginger, and shaoxing wine.

Real-world dishes

Wikipedia Page on Hamburger

Real facts

Soft-shelled turtles are eaten as a delicacy in East Asia. A Chinese dish stews them with chicken. According to a 1930 report by Soame Jenyns, Guangdong restaurants had them imported from Guangxi in large numbers; "eaten stewed with almonds, roast with chili sauce or fried with bamboo shoots, they [were] considered a great delicacy." Due to the rising demand and over-hunting of them, the price of soft-shelled in China skyrocketed by the mid-1990s.
World-wide, the most commonly consumed soft-shell species is the Chinese soft-shell Pelodiscus sinensis. As a noted Japanese biologist pointed out in 1904, the Japanese variety of this turtle, which at time was classified as Trionyx japonicus, occupied a place in Japanese cuisine as esteemed as the diamondback terrapin in the United States or the green turtle in England. The farming of this "luscious reptile", known in Japan as suppon, was already developed on an industrial scale in that country by the late 19th century.
A hamburger, beefburger, or burger is a sandwich consisting of one or more cooked patties of ground meat, usually beef, placed inside a sliced bread roll or bun. The patty may be pan fried, barbecued, or flame broiled. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, bacon, onion, pickles, or chiles; condiments, such as mustard, mayonnaise, ketchup, relish, or "special sauce"; and are frequently placed on sesame seed buns. A hamburger topped with cheese is called a cheeseburger.

Dish details from the Shokugeki no Sōma Wiki (CC BY-SA).

Recipe

Wiki recipe, completed by Totsuki AI

Soft-Shelled Turtle Hamburger

Simplified home version — buy prepared suppon (soft-shelled turtle) from a specialist; the gelatinous dashi is thickened and folded into a pork-bound patty in caul fat, served in steamed buns. Chicken wings make a good stand-in.

Difficulty
Total time: 4 h
Hands-on: 3 h
Cost: ¥¥¥¥
Servings: 4

Equipmentlarge pot, frying pan, steamer, fine sieve, food processor

Tasterich, umami, herby

Ingredients

+ added by Totsuki AI. ≈ amount estimated by Totsuki AI.

Turtle dashi

1 soft-shelled turtle, prepared by a specialist (or 600 g chicken wings) (amount estimated)
100 ml sake (amount estimated)
2 tbsp shaoxing wine (amount estimated)
1 thumb of ginger, sliced (amount estimated)
1 tbsp dried five-flavour berries, schisandra (amount estimated)
10 g kinshinsai, dried day-lily buds (amount estimated)
1 l water (added by Totsuki AI)
1 tbsp potato starch, for thickening (added by Totsuki AI)

Patty

200 g ground pork (amount estimated)
1 sheet caul fat, crépine (amount estimated)
salt, to taste (amount estimated)
black pepper, to taste (amount estimated)

To serve

4 steamed buns, split (amount estimated)
20 g butter (amount estimated)

Method

+ step written by Totsuki AI.

1
If using a whole turtle, the specialist will bleed it and fill the neck cavity with sake to stop the blood coagulating; keep the blood mixed with the shaoxing wine.
2
Remove the shell and prepare the meat and innards.
3
Boil the meat, innards and shell pieces with the ginger, schisandra, day-lily buds and water into a rich dashi (about 1½ hours).
4
Strain. Pick and chop the meat; reduce 300 ml of the dashi and thicken with the starch.+
5
Mix the chopped turtle meat with the pork, a little of the thickened dashi (and blood-wine if using), salt and pepper. Shape 4 patties and wrap each in caul fat.+
6
Pan-fry the patties until browned, then simmer them in the remaining thickened dashi for 10 minutes until 71 °C inside.+
7
Toast the steamed buns with butter, fill with the patties and spoon over the glossy sauce.+

Food safety

Cook minced meat through to 71 °C / 160 °F — no pink in the centre.
Wild game can carry parasites — cook to at least 71 °C / 160 °F unless it is farmed, inspected meat.