Name: Boiled Artichokes
Ingredients: artichokes; salt; lemon juice; white sauce

Why it works: Artichoke and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 636 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Boiled Artichokes

Ingredients

artichokes
salt
lemon juice
white sauce

Directions

Wash and peel the artichokes, then place them in cold water.
In a separate pot, bring water to a boil and add salt to taste and a little lemon juice.
Add the artichokes to the boiling water and cook until tender, about 30 minutes.
Drain the artichokes and serve them with white sauce poured over.

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.

Artichoke + lemontop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together636 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Artichoke + saucetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together462 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lemon + saucetop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,598 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).