Name: Two of French Artichokes a L’ltalienne
Ingredients: 2 quart cans of French artichoke bottoms; ½ pint of stock; juice of ½ lemon; 1 pat of butter; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste; potato paste for border; Italian sauce

Why it works: Artichoke and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 636 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Two of French Artichokes a L’ltalienne

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Open the cans of French artichoke bottoms and heat them in their liquid with the stock.
Add the lemon juice, butter, pepper, and salt.

Serve

Dish the artichokes on a border of potato paste, cup side up.
Pour hot Italian sauce into each artichoke and around them, then serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Artichoke + lemontop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together636 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Artichoke + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together80 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,305 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Artichoke + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,170 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

French artichoke bottoms: Provide the main body of the dish, tender and mild in flavour.
Stock: Adds moisture and savoury flavour as the artichokes heat through.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the artichokes.
Butter: Adds richness and fat, giving a smoother mouthfeel.
Italian sauce: Adds moisture and flavour, poured hot over the artichokes.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (artichoke, lemon, butter, pepper, sauce):

Shallotfits better
Spinachfits better
Asparagusfits better
Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against artichoke, lemon, butter, pepper, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.