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Braised Artichokes

Braised artichokes simmered with stock, butter, carrot, turnip, onion, and served with fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Artichoke and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 140 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Braised Artichokes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Peel the artichokes and place them in cold water.

  2. Bring cold salted water to a boil and add the artichokes.

  3. Strain the artichokes.

Braise

  1. Melt the butter and sauté the carrot, turnip, and onion.

  2. Add the strained artichokes and stock to the pan and cover the pan.

  3. Simmer in the oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 30 minutes until tender.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the artichokes.

  2. Reduce the gravy by boiling until thick.

  3. Strain the gravy over the artichokes.

  4. Garnish with fried bread.

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 + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together140 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Artichokes
The main ingredient, which becomes tender through cooking in the braising liquid.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the vegetables brown lightly when sautéed.
Stock
Provides the braising liquid, which moistens the artichokes and becomes the gravy.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and aromatic flavour to the braising base.
Onion
Adds aromatic flavour to the braising base as it softens and sweetens.

The step that matters

Reducing the gravy by boiling until thick. Boiling evaporates water and concentrates the stock, thickening it into a flavourful gravy. If it is under-reduced the sauce stays thin and watery; over-reduced, it becomes too salty and strong.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against artichoke, butter, pepper, carrot, turnip. 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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