Why it works: Jerusalem artichoke and sauce work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 97 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Jerusalem Artichokes
Ingredients
Directions
Peel the Jerusalem artichokes neatly.
Boil them gently in salted water until tender, but not overcooked.
Place them on a dish and serve with plain butter sauce or your choice of optional sauces.
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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Jerusalem artichoke + saucetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together97 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together15,338 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Jerusalem artichoke + buttertop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together267 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl decanoate (grape, waxy).
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
Swap the jerusalem artichoke
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sauce):
- Shallotfits about as well
- Jerusalem artichokethe original
- Mustardfits about as well
- Onionfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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