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Artichoke Soup

A creamy soup of diced artichokes, potatoes, and onion simmered in butter, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Artichoke Soup

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Artichoke Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel, wash, and dice the artichokes, potatoes, and onion.

Make the soup

  1. Cook the vegetables in 1 quart of water with the butter, salt, and pepper until tender.

  2. Rub the cooked vegetables through a sieve.

  3. Return the liquid to the saucepan, add the milk, and bring to a boil.

  4. Add water if the soup is too thick.

Serve

  1. Serve with plain rusks or small cubes of bread fried crisp in butter.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Artichoke + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Artichokes
Provide the main flavour and body of the soup.
Potatoes
Starch that thickens the soup and gives it a smooth, creamy texture when sieved.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess to the finished soup.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour during cooking of the vegetables.

The step that matters

Rub the cooked vegetables through a sieve. Pushing the cooked vegetables through a sieve breaks down their starch and fibre into a smooth purée. Skipping or rushing this step leaves the soup grainy and uneven in texture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (artichoke, potato, butter, milk, pepper):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against artichoke, potato, butter, milk, 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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