Name: Jerusalem Artichoke Salad
Ingredients: cold boiled artichokes; 3 tablespoons oil; 1 tablespoon vinegar; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; ⅛ teaspoon black pepper

Why it works: Artichoke and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,170 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Jerusalem Artichoke Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Slice the cold boiled artichokes without breaking them.
Arrange the slices neatly on a dish.

Dress and serve

In a bowl, mix together the oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper.
Pour the dressing over the arranged artichokes.

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.

Artichoke + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,170 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,814 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Artichoke + vinegartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked 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

Jerusalem artichokes: Provide the main body and mild, slightly sweet flavour of the salad.
Oil: Carries flavour and gives the dressing a smooth, rich mouthfeel.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the oil.

“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.