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Artichoke Bottoms, Spanish Style

Artichoke bottoms simmered in veal broth, white wine, and lemon, then topped with a reduced Espagnole and tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Artichoke Bottoms, Spanish Style

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Trim the artichokes as described in recipe No. 35.

  2. Place the trimmed artichokes in a deep flat saucepan lined with slices of fat pork.

Braise

  1. Cover with veal broth, white wine, and lemon juice.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, cover the saucepan, and cook slowly until tender.

  3. Remove the artichoke bottoms and place them on a plate.

  4. Strain the gravy and reduce it over high heat.

Finish the sauce

  1. Add Espagnole sauce and tomato sauce to the reduced gravy.

  2. Once reduced to the proper consistency, remove from heat and stir in lemon juice, butter, and chopped parsley.

  3. Pour the sauce over the artichoke bottoms.

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. Artichoke + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together636 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Artichoke + tomatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together354 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Pork + tomatotop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Artichokes
Form the main body of the dish and absorb the braising liquid and sauce flavors.
Fat pork
Lines the pan and releases fat and savory flavor into the braising liquid.
Veal broth
Provides the savory meaty base for the braising liquid and the reduced gravy.
White wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the braising liquid as it reduces.
Espagnole sauce
Thickens the gravy and adds rich, concentrated brown-sauce body.
Butter
Adds fat and gloss, giving the finished sauce a smooth, rounded texture.

The step that matters

Reducing the gravy to the proper consistency. Reducing over high heat concentrates flavor and thickens the liquid; cooking too long can make it overly salty or gluey, while stopping early leaves it thin and watery. Removing from heat before adding butter prevents it from breaking or greasing.

“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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