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To Fry Artichokes

Fried artichokes coated in French batter, served with fried parsley garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Artichoke and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 524 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

To Fry Artichokes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and trim the artichokes, removing the outer leaves and stem.

  2. Cut the artichokes in half.

  3. Boil the halves for 20 minutes.

  4. Drain the artichokes.

  5. Remove the chokes.

Fry and serve

  1. Dip the artichokes in French batter.

  2. Fry the battered artichokes in butter until golden brown.

  3. Drain the fried artichokes.

  4. Sprinkle the fried artichokes with salt.

  5. Serve the fried artichokes on a napkin surrounded by fried parsley.

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 + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together524 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Artichoke + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together893 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Artichokes
Provide the tender edible base that becomes the main body of the dish.
French batter
Forms a crisp golden coating that seals in moisture while the artichoke fries.
Butter for frying
Conducts heat and promotes browning, adding a rich, nutty flavour to the crust.

The step that matters

Fry the battered artichokes in butter until golden brown. Butter contains milk solids that can burn at frying temperatures, turning the coating bitter before the artichoke is heated through. Keeping the heat moderate lets the batter set and brown evenly.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (artichoke, butter):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against artichoke, butter. 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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