Why it works: Flour and artichoke match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 466 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Forcemeat Pie
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pastry as for a raised pie.
Fill the inside with flour to the top.
Put on the cover and bake.
Poach the quenelles in water.
Fry the mushrooms in butter.
Take the lower part of the artichoke leaves, boil them in water, and stew in flour and butter.
Add the above ingredients to the white sauce and boil gently for a few minutes.
Beat the yolks of the eggs and add them to the mixture.
Add a few spoonsful of good gravy and mix well.
Remove the cover from the pie and take out the flour or paper.
Put in the forcemeat.
Place the cover on top and serve very hot.
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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Flour + artichoketop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together466 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Mushroom + artichoketop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together447 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Artichoke + saucetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together462 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + saucetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,078 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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