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Artichoke Soup

A creamy soup made from boiled artichokes, milk, butter, flour, and seasoned with white pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Artichoke Soup

Why it works: Artichoke and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 466 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Artichoke Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the artichokes

  1. Peel the artichokes and place them in cold water immediately.

  2. Boil the artichokes until tender, then mash and strain through a colander.

Make the soup

  1. In a separate pot, bring the milk to a boil.

  2. Add the butter and flour to the boiling milk, stirring to combine.

  3. Season with white pepper and salt, then mix in the strained artichokes.

  4. Boil the mixture for five minutes in a double boiler.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

  1. Artichoke + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together466 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Artichoke + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together893 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Artichokes
Provide the main body and flavor of the soup once mashed and strained.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the soup and contributes creaminess.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the soup.
Flour
Thickens the milk so the soup becomes smooth and body-rich.

The step that matters

Adding the butter and flour to boiling milk. Stirring the flour in while the milk is boiling and mixing thoroughly helps it disperse evenly; otherwise it can clump, leaving lumps and an uneven, floury texture in the soup.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (artichoke, milk, butter, flour):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against artichoke, milk, butter, flour. 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.

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