Name: Artichoke Bottoms, Macedoine
Ingredients: 12 artichokes; 2 tablespoons butter; Coarse sea salt, to taste; Black pepper, to taste; A pinch of sugar; Assorted vegetables for garniture; 2 tablespoons Allemande sauce; Half glaze, for finishing

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 ↓

Artichoke Bottoms, Macedoine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Prepare 12 artichokes as described in recipe No. 35.
Place them in a flat saucepan with butter and warm thoroughly.
Season with salt, pepper, and a pinch of sugar.

Make the garniture

Prepare a small cut Macedoine garniture with assorted vegetables.
Cook and glaze each vegetable separately, then mix them together.
Add 2 tablespoons of Allemande sauce to the vegetable mixture.

Assemble

Fill each artichoke bottom with the garniture and add a few drops of half glaze on top.

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).
Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,147 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Artichoke + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together893 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Artichoke + saucetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together462 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Artichokes: Form the base that holds the garniture and provides the main body of the dish.
Butter: Adds richness and carries flavour as the artichokes warm through.
Allemande sauce: Binds the vegetables together and adds a creamy, moist texture.

“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.