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Artichoke Soup

A soup made from Jerusalem artichokes, stock, butter, onion, celery, milk or cream, seasoned with pepper and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Artichoke Soup

Why it works: Jerusalem artichoke and celery share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 75 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Artichoke Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the artichokes well.

  2. In a basin of clean water, add 1 tablespoon of vinegar and peel the artichokes under water to keep their color.

  3. Slice the artichokes, celery, and onion.

Cook the soup

  1. Heat the butter in a saucepan and stir in the vegetables without browning.

  2. Add the stock and boil until the vegetables are tender.

  3. Rinse the mixture through a fine sieve and return it to the saucepan.

  4. Add the milk or cream, bring to a boil, season with pepper and salt, and serve.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Jerusalem artichoke + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together75 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Jerusalem artichoke + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together140 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Jerusalem artichokes
Provide the main body and starchy, earthy flavor of the soup as they soften.
Butter
Adds richness and carries the flavor of the onion and celery when gently cooked.
Milk or cream
Adds creaminess and smooth body to the finished soup.
Onion
Builds savory aromatic flavor as it softens in the butter.

The step that matters

Stir the vegetables in butter without browning. Browning adds bitter, toasted notes that compete with the delicate artichoke flavor. Keeping the heat gentle lets the vegetables soften and sweeten slowly, building a clean base for the soup.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against jerusalem artichoke, butter, celery, milk, pepper. 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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