Name: Artichoke Bottoms
Ingredients: ½ pint velouté or béchamel sauce; 2 ounces grated Parmesan cheese; cayenne pepper to taste; artichokes

Why it works: Pepper and artichoke are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,170 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Artichoke Bottoms

Ingredients

½ pint velouté or béchamel sauce
2 ounces grated Parmesan cheese
cayenne pepper to taste
artichokes

Directions

Prepare ½ pint of velouté or béchamel sauce.
Stir in 2 ounces of grated Parmesan cheese.
Season with cayenne pepper to taste.
Pour the sauce over 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.

Pepper + artichoketop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,170 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Parmesan cheese + artichoketop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together326 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,322 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).
Sauce + artichoketop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together462 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + parmesan cheesetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,294 recipes

Shared aroma: decanoic acid (soapy, waxy).