Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Palestine Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the artichokes
Wash and peel the artichokes.
In a stewpan, combine artichokes, butter, bacon rind, and bay leaves.
Cover and cook over low heat for 8-10 minutes, shaking occasionally.
Make the soup
Add water to cover the artichokes and simmer until soft.
Pass the mixture through a sieve.
Mix in the cooking liquid.
Heat the soup.
Add boiling milk until it reaches the thickness of double cream.
Season with pepper and salt to taste.
Just before serving, stir in the hot cream if desired.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Artichoke + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,170 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Artichoke + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together893 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Artichokes
- Form the main body of the soup, becoming soft and pureed into its texture.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, softening the artichokes gently at the start.
- Bacon rind
- Contributes savory, smoky flavor to the cooking liquid.
- Milk
- Thickens the soup and adds creamy body and mild sweetness.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky finish when stirred in at the end.
The step that matters
Passing the mixture through a sieve. Artichoke fibres stay coarse unless the cooked pulp is pushed through, so a sieve gives the smooth texture the soup needs. Adding boiling milk afterward thickens it without curdling the dairy.
“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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