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Jerusalem Artichokes, a LA Reine

A dish of boiled Jerusalem artichokes topped with a creamy sauce of milk, cream, flour, butter, mace, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Jerusalem Artichokes, a LA Reine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the artichokes

  1. Wash and wipe the artichokes.

  2. Cut one end of each artichoke flat and trim the other end to a point.

Boil and plate

  1. Boil the artichokes in a mixture of milk and water until done.

  2. Remove the artichokes from the pot.

  3. Place the artichokes upright in a serving dish.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In a saucepan, combine cream, flour, butter, mace, and salt.

  2. Cook the mixture until thickened.

  3. Pour the sauce over the artichokes before serving.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Jerusalem artichokes
Form the main body of the dish, cooked until tender enough to eat.
Milk
Provides the liquid for boiling the artichokes, adding mild richness to them.
Cream
Gives the sauce a smooth, rich body and a silky mouthfeel.
Flour
Thickens the cream sauce as it cooks, giving it body.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Cook the sauce until thickened. Flour needs to be cooked with the cream and butter long enough to swell and set the sauce. Stopping too early leaves a raw, pasty taste and a thin sauce, while overcooking can cause it to scorch on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (jerusalem artichoke, milk, cream, flour, butter):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against jerusalem artichoke, milk, cream, flour, butter. 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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