Why it works: Mace and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,557 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓
Artichoke Bottoms, Pickled
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the artichokes until the leaves can be pulled off without breaking the bottoms.
Leave the choke on and set the artichokes aside to cool.
Place the cooled artichokes into wide-mouthed bottles.
Boil vinegar with salt, pepper, mace, and sliced nutmeg.
Once the mixture is cold, pour it over the artichokes.
Tie a bladder over the bottles.
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.
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Mace + nutmegtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,557 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Artichoke + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together156 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Artichoke + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,170 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (artichoke, vinegar, pepper, nutmeg):
- Tarragonfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Capersfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against artichoke, vinegar, pepper, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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