Why it works: Artichoke and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 636 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓
Artichokes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the artichokes
Trim the ends of the artichokes and remove the choke; quarter each artichoke.
Pour boiling water over the artichokes and drain them.
Cook
In a stewpan, add the artichokes, white wine, clear soup, salt, pepper, and lemon peel.
Cook until done, then remove the artichokes and boil the sauce down.
Finish and serve
Cream the butter, add the flour, and gradually mix in the sauce; simmer until thick.
Serve the sauce with the artichokes.
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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Artichoke + lemontop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together636 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Artichoke + flourtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together466 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,083 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Artichoke + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,170 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Artichokes
- The main vegetable, cooked gently in wine and soup until tender.
- White wine
- Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sauce as it reduces.
- Clear soup
- Provides the liquid base and savoury flavour for the sauce.
- Butter
- Adds richness and body to the sauce, carrying flavour across the palate.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce when creamed with butter and simmered.
The step that matters
Boiling the sauce down. Reducing the liquid concentrates flavour, but over-reducing makes the sauce too salty and intense. Stop once the sauce is well flavoured and will still coat the artichokes when thickened with the butter and flour.
“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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