Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Stuffed Artichoke Bottoms, Pioneer Style
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the filling
Prepare the artichokes by removing the leaves and trimming the bottoms.
Fry the chopped onion in a saucepan until browned.
Season the onion with salt and pepper.
Add the chopped roast veal, reduced Allemande sauce, and bread crumbs to the onion.
Mix the mixture well.
Remove the pan from heat.
Stir in the egg yolks.
Stuff and bake
Stuff the artichoke bottoms with the mixture.
Sprinkle the stuffed bottoms with bread crumbs.
Arrange the stuffed artichoke bottoms on a buttered baking pan.
Place a small piece of butter on each bottom.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until heated through and golden.
Serve
Serve with thickened veal gravy.
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.
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Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Artichoke + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together738 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Artichoke + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,170 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
-
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Artichokes
- Their bottoms form the edible case that holds the filling while it bakes.
- Egg yolks
- Bind the filling and set when baked, helping it hold its shape.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb moisture from the filling and help form a golden crust on top.
- Roast veal
- Provides the savory meat base of the filling.
- Reduced allemande sauce
- Adds richness and moisture, binding the meat and crumbs together.
- Onion
- Browned in the pan to add sweetness and depth of flavour to the filling.
The step that matters
Stir in the egg yolks off the heat. Egg yolks begin to set at moderate temperatures. Adding them to a very hot pan can scramble them and make the filling grainy instead of smooth and cohesive.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (artichoke, veal, sauce, bread, egg, butter, pepper):
- Shallotfits better
- Asparagusfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against artichoke, veal, sauce, bread, egg, butter, pepper. 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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