Mock turtle soup from the time of the personal union between the Kingdom of Hanover and the Kingdom of Great Britain. While green sea turtle was popular for soup making in many countries, U.S. recipes included many other local species. Soup made from snapping turtles is still available in parts of the country. Similarly mock turtle soup recipes have a variety of substitute meats. Beside organ meats like the British recipes, recipes in the U.S. often use stewing beef or ground beef but may call for alligator. The Campbell Soup Company once produced canned mock turtle soup made of calf's head. In a
Chinese softshell turtle lesser Chinese softshell turtle ("P. parviformis") and Hunan softshell turtle ("P. axenaria"). The Chinese softshell turtle is a vulnerable species, threatened by habitat loss and collection for food such as turtle soup. Millions are now farmed, especially in China, to support the food industry, and it is the world's economically most important turtle. Females of the Chinese softshell turtle can reach up to in carapace length, while the smaller males reach , but however have longer tails than the females. Maturity is reached at a carapace length of . It has webbed feet for swimming. They are called "softshell" because