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Puree of Jerusalem Artichokes

A creamy puree made from Jerusalem artichokes, milk, flour, sugar, nutmeg, egg yolks, and butter, served with fried croûtons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Jerusalem artichoke and nutmeg share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 48 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Puree of Jerusalem Artichokes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the puree

  1. Peel, slice, and fry the Jerusalem artichokes slightly in butter.

  2. Sprinkle the Jerusalem artichokes with flour.

  3. Dilute with boiled milk.

  4. Add sugar and nutmeg.

  5. Cook for half an hour.

  6. Press the mixture through a sieve.

  7. Boil the puree again.

Finish and serve

  1. Finish with a mixture of egg yolks and small bits of butter, mixing well.

  2. Do not boil again.

  3. Serve with small croûtons fried in butter added just before serving.

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. Jerusalem artichoke + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together48 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Jerusalem artichoke + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together116 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Jerusalem artichokes
Form the body of the puree, providing the main flavour and thickening solids once pressed.
Flour
Thickens the milk mixture so the puree holds body when cooked.
Milk
Makes up the liquid base, giving the puree a smooth, creamy texture.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the puree as they set gently, adding richness and smoothness.
Butter
Adds fat for flavour and a rich, silky mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Do not boil again after adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat and will curdle or turn grainy if the puree boils once they are stirred in, spoiling the smooth texture.

Swap the jerusalem artichoke

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, sugar, nutmeg, egg, butter):

  1. Sweet potatofits about as well
  2. Arrowrootfits about as well
  3. Jerusalem artichokethe original
  4. Leekfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, sugar, nutmeg, egg, butter. 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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