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Sauce

Artichoke, an Elegant Fish-sauce

A sauce made from artichoke leaves, wine, vinegar, butter, flour, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Artichoke and flour 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 ↓

Artichoke, an Elegant Fish-sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Prepare the artichoke bottoms for winter use and collect all the leaves.

  2. Cut off the coarser parts and simmer the leaves until they pulp.

  3. Strain the liquid and let it settle.

  4. Combine the strained liquid with 3½ pints of white wine and 1 pint of vinegar in an earthen vessel.

  5. Simmer the mixture in a bain‑marie for 30 minutes, then let it cool and bottle it.

Finish the sauce

  1. When ready to use, rub a little flour into ¼ pound of butter and mix it with 3 tablespoons of the sauce.

  2. Alternatively, melt the butter in pieces mixed with a little flour, then add 4 tablespoons of cream or rich stock.

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 + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together466 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. White wine + buttertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Artichoke + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together206 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Artichoke leaves
Break down into pulp that gives the sauce its body and flavour.
White wine
Provides the liquid base and acidity that carries the sauce's flavour.
Vinegar
Adds sharpness that balances the richness of the butter and cream.
Butter
Adds fat and smooth richness to the finished sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter so it blends smoothly into the sauce.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, silkier texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Blending the butter and flour into the sauce. Flour must be worked into the butter before it meets the sauce. Added directly, it clumps and forms lumps, while a smooth roux-like mix thickens the sauce evenly.

“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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