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Artichoke Bottoms, to Pickle

Pickled artichoke bottoms preserved in a vinegar brine with salt, pepper, and mace.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: White pepper and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,695 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Artichoke Bottoms, to Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the artichokes

  1. Parboil the artichokes and pull out the leaves, leaving the choke intact.

  2. Allow the artichokes to cool and place them into pickle bottles.

Make and pour the brine

  1. Boil the vinegar and add the salt, white pepper, and mace.

  2. Simmer the mixture for twenty minutes, then set aside to cool.

  3. Once cooled, pour the vinegar mixture into the bottles and cork them tightly.

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.

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. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Artichoke + vinegartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together381 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Vinegar + white peppertop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Vinegar + macetop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,415 recipes
  5. Artichoke + macetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together128 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

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

What each ingredient does

Artichokes
Parboiling softens the bottoms so they can take up the brine and become tender.
Vinegar
Provides acidity that gives the pickle its sharp, tangy flavour and helps preserve it.
White pepper
Adds a mild, warm bite and aroma to the brine.
Mace
Contributes a warm, delicate aroma to the pickling liquid.

The step that matters

Cool the brine before pouring it into the bottles. Hot liquid would continue cooking the tender artichokes and soften them. Sealing a bottle while the liquid is still hot can also trap heat and build pressure as it cools, so the brine should be fully cooled first.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (artichoke, vinegar, white pepper):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against artichoke, vinegar, white pepper. 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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