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Cardoons, with Essence of Ham

Cardoons cooked with white wine, broth, salt, pepper, sugar, and reduced brown sauce flavored with ham essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,147 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cardoons, with Essence of Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Braise

  1. Place the parboiled and cleaned cardoons in a flat saucepan.

  2. Add the white wine and enough broth to cover the cardoons.

  3. Season with salt, pepper, and sugar.

  4. Cook until the moisture is reduced and the cardoons are nicely glazed.

Serve

  1. Transfer the cardoons to a dish and pour over the reduced brown sauce mixed with essence of ham.

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. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Cardoon + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together31 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. White wine + peppertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,433 recipes

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

  4. Cardoon + saucetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together48 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. White wine + saucetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together819 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

Cardoons
Form the main vegetable base that softens during braising and takes on the glaze.
White wine
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps lift the cooking liquid.
Broth
Provides the cooking liquid that softens the cardoons and carries flavour.
Sugar
Adds a little sweetness that helps the cardoons caramelise lightly as the liquid reduces.
Brown sauce
Gives a rich, savoury coating that thickens and adds body to the final dish.
Essence of ham
Adds a concentrated smoky, savoury aroma to the sauce poured over the cardoons.

The step that matters

Cook until the moisture is reduced and the cardoons are nicely glazed. If the liquid reduces too quickly or too little, the cardoons can scorch or stay watery. Gentle, steady reduction lets the sugars and proteins brown slightly and form a glaze that clings to the vegetable.

“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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