Name: Jerusalem Artichokes
Ingredients: 1 pound Jerusalem artichokes; Salt; Melted butter sauce

Why it works: Jerusalem artichoke and sauce work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 97 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Jerusalem Artichokes

Ingredients

1 pound Jerusalem artichokes
Salt
Melted butter sauce

Directions

Peel and wash the Jerusalem artichokes in cold water.
Cook them in boiling water with a little salt for about 1 hour, or until soft.
Drain the artichokes and pour melted butter sauce over them before serving.

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.

Jerusalem artichoke + saucetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together97 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Jerusalem artichoke + buttertop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together267 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl decanoate (grape, waxy).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Jerusalem artichokes: Form the main body of the dish; cooking softens their firm flesh into a tender, mild vegetable.
Melted butter sauce: Adds fat and richness that coat the tender artichokes and carry flavour.