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Artichoke Soup

A soup made from Jerusalem artichokes, stock, milk or cream, and vegetables, finished with butter, lemon juice, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Artichoke Soup

Why it works: Jerusalem artichoke and leek share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Artichoke Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Wash and peel the artichokes, then place them in water with lemon juice.

  2. Wash the celery and leek, then cut them into small pieces.

Make the soup

  1. In a stewpan, melt the butter.

  2. Add the artichokes, celery, and leek, and sweat over low heat for a few minutes.

  3. Add the stock and boil until the vegetables are tender.

  4. Rub the mixture through a wire sieve and return it to the pan.

  5. Add the pepper, salt, cream, and lemon juice, and heat through without boiling.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Jerusalem artichoke + celerytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together75 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Leek + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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 starchy texture that thickens the soup when puréed.
Stock
Supplies the liquid base and savoury flavour for cooking the vegetables.
Milk or milk and cream
Adds richness and smoothness, softening the soup's flavour and texture.
Leek
Adds a mild onion-like sweetness and aroma as it sweats in butter.
Butter
Carries flavour during sweating and adds richness to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Heat through without boiling. Once dairy is added, boiling can cause it to curdle or separate and make the soup grainy. Gentle heating keeps it smooth and creamy.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (jerusalem artichoke, milk, leek, butter, lemon, pepper):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Celerythe original
  4. Capersfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against jerusalem artichoke, milk, leek, butter, lemon, pepper. 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.

More artichoke soup recipes

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