Name: Artichokes, a French Mode of Cooking
Ingredients: 5 or 6 artichokes; 1 gallon of water; 1 heaped tablespoon coarse sea salt; 1 teaspoon pepper; 1 bunch of savory herbs; 2 oz. butter

Why it works: Artichoke and pepper 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 ↓

Artichokes, a French Mode of Cooking

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut the ends of the leaves and the stems of the artichokes.

Boil and serve

Place the artichokes in boiling water with salt, pepper, herbs, and butter.
Boil quickly until tender, keeping the lid off the saucepan. When the leaves come out easily, they are done.
Serve with melted butter.

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.

Artichoke + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,170 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Artichoke + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together893 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Artichokes: Form the dish itself; the tender leaves and heart are the part eaten.
Butter: Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the served artichokes.

The step that matters

Boiling with the lid off. Leaving the lid off lets volatile compounds escape and keeps the water at a steady boil, helping the artichokes cook evenly and keeping their color bright. Boiling too gently or covering the pot can lead to dull, unevenly cooked artichokes.

“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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Artichokes, a French Mode of Cooking