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Jerusalem Artichokes, a LA Reine

Jerusalem artichokes simmered in milk and water, topped with a béchamel sauce seasoned with 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

  1. Wash and wipe the artichokes. Cut one end of each artichoke flat and trim the other end to a point.

Cook and serve

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

  2. Remove the artichokes and place them upright in a serving dish.

  3. Sauce the artichokes with a béchamel or a mixture of cream thickened with flour and butter.

  4. Season the sauce with a pinch of mace and salt.

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, becoming tender when boiled until done.
Milk
Cooks the artichokes gently and forms the base of the béchamel sauce.
Heavy cream
Enriches the sauce, adding richness and a smooth, velvety texture.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the cream sauce by gelatinizing its starch as it heats.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor, and combines with flour to form the sauce base.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce. Flour must be cooked with butter and liquid long enough to swell its starch and thicken smoothly. Adding it too quickly or not heating it enough can leave lumps or a raw, pasty taste.

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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