Name: Boiled Artichokes
Ingredients: Jerusalem artichokes; 1 heaped tablespoon coarse sea salt; 1 piece of baking soda the size of a quarter; Flour; Butter; New milk; 2 small onions, thinly sliced; Pepper; Melted butter for serving

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 ↓

Boiled Artichokes

Ingredients

Directions

Wash the Jerusalem artichokes well in several waters and inspect for insects.
Trim the leaves at the bottom and cut off the stems.
Place the artichokes in boiling water with salt and baking soda.
Keep the saucepan uncovered and boil until tender, about 25 minutes.
Check doneness by thrusting a fork through them.
Remove from water, let drain, and serve with white sauce made from flour, butter, new milk, onions, and pepper.
Accompany with a tureen of melted butter.

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.

Jerusalem artichoke + flourtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together116 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Jerusalem artichoke + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together140 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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

Swap the onion

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

Leekfits better
Turnipfits better
Arrowrootfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against jerusalem artichoke, flour, butter, milk, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.