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To Preserve Artichokes in Pickle

A method for preserving artichokes by pickling them in a salt and vinegar solution.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Artichoke and butter work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 893 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

To Preserve Artichokes in Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut off the tails and ends of the leaves of the artichokes.

  2. Soak the artichokes in boiling water until you can easily remove the choke.

  3. Sprinkle the inside of the artichokes with coarse sea salt.

Pickle

  1. Place the artichokes in a stone jar and fill it with water, adding a handful of salt.

  2. Let them sit overnight.

  3. The next day, change the water and add two or three handfuls of salt and a glass of vinegar to make a strong pickle.

  4. Cover the jar with melted butter.

Finish

  1. Steep the artichokes in lukewarm water to remove the pickle taste.

  2. Boil or stew the artichokes.

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. Artichoke + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together893 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Artichoke + vinegartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together381 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Fine artichokes
The main vegetable; its leaves and heart are what get pickled and eaten.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that gives the pickle its sour flavour and helps preserve the artichokes.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out and seasons the artichokes while helping to preserve them in the brine.
Melted butter
Poured over the jar to form a fat layer that seals the surface from air.

The step that matters

Steep in lukewarm water after pickling. Soaking in lukewarm water draws out the excess salt and vinegar from the strong pickle, so the artichokes are not overly sour or salty when cooked.

“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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