Name: Pickled Aetichokes
Ingredients: fresh artichokes; cold water; vinegar; coarse sea salt; lemon

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 ↓

Pickled Aetichokes

Ingredients

Directions

Cut off the stems and hard leaves of the artichokes, then trim the upper part in the middle.
Scoop out the fibrous part carefully and place the artichokes in a pan with cold water and a little vinegar.
Parboil the artichokes for five minutes, then immerse them in cold water.
Trim all artichokes to be uniform and rub them with a lemon.
Arrange the artichokes in an earthen jar or barrel.
Cover the artichokes with a brine made of water and coarse sea salt (16 to 18 degrees sugar weight).
After 24 hours, drain the water, boil it again, skim, and add more salt to restore the brine's strength.
Seal the jar or barrel hermetically.
Before using, soak the artichokes in lukewarm water for 10 to 15 hours.

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 + lemontop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together636 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Artichoke + vinegartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together381 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Vinegar + lemontop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,334 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).