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Artichokes

A soup of Jerusalem artichokes, water, flour, stock, salt, and cream, served over toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Jerusalem artichoke and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 116 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Artichokes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. Combine chopped Jerusalem artichokes and water in a saucepan and cook until tender.

  2. Mix flour with a little water to create a smooth paste.

  3. Add the paste to the saucepan along with the stock and salt.

  4. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently.

Strain and finish

  1. Once boiling, strain the mixture through a fine sieve into another saucepan.

  2. Rub the mixture through the sieve to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard any solids.

  3. Return the strained liquid to the heat and boil for a few minutes.

  4. Stir in the cream.

  5. Serve the soup over pieces of toast.

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. Jerusalem artichoke + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together116 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Jerusalem artichoke + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together182 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  3. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Jerusalem artichokes
Provide the main body and earthy flavour of the soup once cooked and strained.
Flour
Mixed to a paste and stirred in to thicken the liquid slightly.
Stock
Forms the liquid base and carries the savoury flavour of the soup.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, rounder mouthfeel at the end.

The step that matters

Rubbing the mixture through the sieve. Pressing the cooked artichokes forces their starchy pulp through the mesh, which gives the soup its smooth body. Leaving fibres or lumps behind makes the texture grainy.

“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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