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Artichoke Soup

A creamy soup made from cooked Jerusalem artichokes, milk, butter, onion, and flour, finished with cream and served with toast or crackers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Artichoke Soup

Why it works: Jerusalem 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 116 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Artichoke Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the artichokes

  1. Press the cooked Jerusalem artichokes through a sieve while hot.

Make the soup

  1. Melt the butter over low heat in a saucepan.

  2. Add the chopped onion and cook slowly without browning.

  3. Remove the onion from the butter after a few minutes.

  4. Stir in the flour.

  5. Gradually add the hot milk, mixing well.

  6. Add the artichoke pulp and season with salt and pepper.

  7. Heat the mixture thoroughly.

  8. Stir in the cream before serving.

Serve

  1. Serve with cheese toast, croutons, or hot crackers.

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. Jerusalem artichoke + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together116 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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Jerusalem artichoke + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together140 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Jerusalem artichokes
Provide the main body and flavor of the soup when pressed into a purée.
Milk
Supplies the liquid and creamy richness that forms the soup base.
Butter
Carries the onion and adds rich flavor and fat to the base.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk mixture so the soup becomes smooth and velvety.
Cream
Adds final richness and a silky texture when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Cook the onion slowly without browning. Gentle heat softens the onion and draws out its sweetness without browning. Browning would add bitter, toasted flavors that clash with the delicate artichoke taste.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against jerusalem artichoke, milk, butter, flour, pepper, cream, cheese. 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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