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purAe of Artichoke a LA crAme

A creamy artichoke puree made with celery, turnip, onion, butter, milk, cream, and stock, served hot with fried croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and artichoke 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 ↓

purAe of Artichoke a LA crAme

Ingredients

Directions

Make the vegetable base

  1. In a stewpan, combine the celery, turnip, onion, and butter.

  2. Stir continuously for 15 minutes.

  3. Add the artichokes, milk, sugar, and coarse sea salt.

  4. Pour in the white stock.

  5. Simmer until the vegetables are soft.

Strain and finish

  1. Strain the mixture.

  2. Beat the vegetables through a wire sieve and then a fine sieve.

  3. Return to the stock.

  4. Stir in the cream and simmer for 5 minutes.

  5. Add salt to taste.

  6. Serve hot 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.

  1. Turnip + artichoketop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together140 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 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. Celery + artichoketop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together183 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

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

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 earthy flavour of the puree.
Butter
Softens the vegetables gently and adds richness to the finished puree.
Milk
Adds moisture and mild sweetness, helping the puree become smooth.
Cream
Adds richness and silkiness to the finished soup.
White stock
Provides the liquid that carries the flavour and gives the puree its consistency.
Onion
Adds aromatic depth and savoury sweetness as it cooks down.

The step that matters

Stir continuously for 15 minutes. Cooking the celery, turnip, onion and butter gently without browning them builds a sweet, mild base. Constant stirring prevents the vegetables from catching on the pan and scorching, which would add bitter, burnt flavours to the puree.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, turnip, butter, artichoke, milk, sugar, cream):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, turnip, butter, artichoke, milk, sugar, cream. 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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