Name: Artichoke Puree, Preserved
Ingredients: Artichoke bottoms; Lemon juice; Coarse sea salt; Pepper; Nutmeg; Sugar; Butter; Cream or Allemande sauce

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 ↓

Artichoke Puree, Preserved

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the artichoke bottoms as in recipe No. 35, using lemon juice to keep them white.
Cook the artichokes, then drain them on a napkin.
Rub the artichokes through a fine sieve and place the puree in pint tin boxes.
Solder on the covers and boil in a hot water bath for 1.5 hours.
To use the preserved puree, open the can and place the puree in a saucepan with half its quantity of cream or Allemande sauce.
Warm thoroughly, then season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and a pinch of sugar.
Before serving, add a piece of butter and mix until melted.

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).
Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Artichoke + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together156 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,318 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together13,015 recipes

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