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 ↓
Artichoke Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel the artichokes and soak them in vinegar and water for 1 hour to maintain color.
Make the soup
Mix ½ pint of milk with the stock in a pot.
Add the artichokes, onions, and peppercorns, and boil for 1 hour.
Pass the mixture through a fine sieve using a wooden spoon.
Stir in the remaining milk and salt, then return to the saucepan and heat until boiling.
If the soup is not thick enough, add a little sago or semolina while heating.
Serve
Serve with fried bread.
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.
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Artichoke + lemontop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together636 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Artichoke + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together738 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,226 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,053 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Artichoke + vinegartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together381 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 boiled and sieved.
- Milk
- Adds richness and a creamy texture to the soup.
- White bone stock
- Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor of the soup.
- Onions
- Add savory aromatic flavor as they cook into the soup.
- Sago or semolina (in the method)
- Thickens the soup if it is not thick enough.
The step that matters
Pass the mixture through a fine sieve. Boiled artichoke must be pressed fully through the sieve so the soup becomes smooth; leftover fibers and lumps make the texture gritty.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (artichoke, milk, vinegar, lemon):
- Shallotfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against artichoke, milk, vinegar, lemon. 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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