Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the soup base
Melt the butter in a stewpan.
Pulp the artichokes through a sieve.
Season the pulped artichokes with salt and cayenne pepper.
Finish the soup
Stir in the thick cream before serving.
Do not allow the soup to boil after adding the cream.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Artichoke + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,170 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Butter + artichoketop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together893 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together85,593 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Artichoke + creamtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together335 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Artichokes
- Form the main body and flavour of the soup once pulped into a smooth purée.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a rounded, savoury flavour.
- Thick cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the soup.
The step that matters
Do not boil after adding the cream. High heat can cause cream to separate or curdle, leaving the soup grainy and thin. Keeping it just warm preserves a smooth, uniform texture.
“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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