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Artichoke Cream Soup

A creamy soup made from artichokes, broth, cream sauce, butter, egg yolks, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Artichoke Cream Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the artichokes

  1. Peel and quarter the artichokes.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter and toss the artichokes lightly over medium heat until tender but not browned.

Make the soup

  1. Cover the artichokes with broth, add the parsley, and season with salt, pepper, and sugar. Cook slowly until tender.

  2. Remove the parsley and add the cream sauce. Mash through a fine colander, adding broth to achieve desired thickness.

  3. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve back into the saucepan. Season to taste and keep warm without boiling.

Finish and serve

  1. Before serving, stir in the butter until melted.

  2. In a separate bowl, mix the egg yolks with the cream and strain through a fine strainer.

  3. Slowly add the egg mixture to the soup while stirring well.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Artichoke + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together524 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 soup, becoming tender and mashed into the puree.
Butter
Adds richness and mouthfeel, and carries flavor when the artichokes are first tossed.
Cream sauce
Supplies body and smoothness, thickening the puree into a creamy soup.
Egg yolks
Enriches the soup and thickens it gently when stirred in off the heat.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Adding the egg mixture to the soup. Egg yolks thicken by coagulating when heated. If the soup is too hot or added too quickly without constant stirring, the yolks can scramble into specks. Keep the soup warm, not boiling, and stir steadily as the mixture is added.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (artichoke, butter, chicken, pepper, sugar, cream, sauce):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against artichoke, butter, chicken, pepper, sugar, cream, sauce. 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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