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Artichoke Soup

A creamy soup made from artichokes, potatoes, onion, butter, milk, and water, served with fried bread cubes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 diced vegetables in 1 quart of water with 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. If the soup is too thick, add water to reach desired consistency.

Serve

  1. Serve with small dice 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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Artichokes
Give the soup its main flavour and body when cooked and sieved.
Potatoes
Starch thickens the soup and gives it a smooth, creamy texture when sieved.
Butter
Adds richness and carries flavour as the vegetables cook.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the flavour of the soup.

The step that matters

Rubbing the cooked vegetables through a sieve. Cooked vegetables must be fully tender so they pass smoothly through the sieve. Pressing them through breaks down the cell walls, producing a smooth, even texture rather than a grainy one.

Swap the onion

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

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

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