Why it works: Butter and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Artichokes , Globe , Boiled
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash and soak an artichoke for each person.
Cut off the stalks close to the leaves and trim the tops of the leaves.
Boil and serve
Place the artichokes in a large pot of boiling water.
Boil until the leaves come out easily and the bottoms are soft: old artichokes for 1 to 1.5 hours, young tender ones for 30 to 45 minutes.
Drain the artichokes upside down and serve with Melted Butter Sauce.
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.
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Artichoke + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together893 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Artichoke + saucetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together462 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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
- Artichokes
- Provide the tender leaves and heart that are the edible parts of the dish.
The step that matters
Boil until the bottoms are soft. Cooking time depends on the age of the artichoke. Undercooked artichokes stay tough and fibrous, while overcooked ones turn mushy, so testing the leaves and base for easy give is the reliable check.
“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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