Why it works: Artichoke and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 738 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Oil and Vinegar
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the artichokes
Cut off the stalks of the artichokes and remove the small leaves.
Chop the leaves into small pieces.
Cook and serve
Boil the chopped leaves in water with salt, pepper, sweet herbs, and the onion or shallot.
Once cooked, remove from heat and take out the choke.
Serve the leaves and bottoms with white sauce or cold with oil and vinegar.
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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Artichoke + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together738 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Artichoke + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,170 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
-
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,226 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,814 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Artichokes
- Provide the main body of the dish, with edible leaves and bottoms.
- Oil
- Adds richness and carries flavor when the artichokes are served cold.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the cold artichokes.
- White sauce
- Adds creamy richness when the artichokes are served warm.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (artichoke, pepper, sauce, vinegar):
- Shallotfits better
- Mustardfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against artichoke, pepper, sauce, vinegar. 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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