The Non-Reptilian Animal Campbell's Used For Its Canned Mock Turtle Soup

Before we begin discussing a Campbell's food product that long ago vanished from store shelves, let's tackle the tricky question of why such a thing as "mock turtle soup" was ever invented. In the 19th century, turtle was — if not right up there with pork, beef, and chicken — a meat that might appear on the menu of a fancy restaurant or even at the White House (former president Chester A. Arthur was particularly fond of a good turtle steak). While no one eats turtle steak or soup these days because conservation is actually a thing now, back in the 1800s, turtles weren't always affordable or readily available. So, non-reptilian-based mock turtle soup made for a budget-friendlier alternative, and the Campbell's soup company started producing the product by the early 1900s.

If you've ever seen an illustrated version of Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," you'll probably have been introduced to the visual pun that is Sir John Tenniel's mock turtle. It's part sea turtle and part cow, and indeed beef is the meat used in many mock turtle soup recipes, including the one used by Campbell's.

Not just any old cut of beef, though — Campbell's and Heinz, which also once made such a soup, used calves' heads to take the place of turtle meat. Other ingredients in Campbell's version included beef broth, tomatoes, and celery.

Even though mock turtles (aka cows) aren't remotely endangered, mock turtle soup is mostly a thing of the past. In its day, it had famous fans including Abraham Lincoln, who served it at his first inauguration. (At his second one, he went with real turtle instead, and things just went downhill from there.)

Andy Warhol was also fond of the soup, claiming the Campbell's canned version as a favorite and expressing disappointment when the company discontinued it sometime around the middle of the 20th century. Whatever could have happened to make this soup go out of fashion? While we can't say for sure, it's possible that turtles are now thought of more as pets than food products, and we don't eat "mock gerbil" soup, either.

Even though mock turtle soup canned by Campbell's was discontinued decades ago, you can still purchase a different brand. Worthmore Food Products, a company that was based out of Cincinnati for over a century, has a mock turtle soup that isn't made with calf's heads but beef hearts instead, along with ketchup and hard-boiled eggs. It comes in cans ranging from 10 up to 104 ounces, with the extra-large ones presumably being for restaurant use since the soup is still quite popular in that city. While Worthmore sold its Cincinnati soup-making plant to a copper company in early 2024, it didn't stop making mock turtle soup but simply relocated its production to an out-of-town facility.