Name: Palestine or Artichoke Soup
Ingredients: 1 pint white stock; ½ pint milk or cream; 1½ lbs artichokes; 1 oz butter; 1 onion; Salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Palestine or Artichoke Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Peel the onion and artichokes, then place them in cold water with a little lemon juice.
Slice them finely and add to a pan with melted butter.
Toss lightly until they absorb the butter.

Simmer and serve

Add the stock and simmer for 30 minutes.
Rub through a sieve and serve with fried croutons.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Artichoke + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together738 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Artichoke + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,170 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Artichokes: Provide the main body and flavour of the soup once cooked and puréed.
Butter: Coats the sliced vegetables and adds richness to the soup.
White stock: Forms the liquid that simmers the artichokes into a soup.
Milk or cream: Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the soup.