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Artichoke Soup

A clear soup of Jerusalem artichokes, onion, celery, and stock, finished with milk and seasoned with pepper and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Artichoke Soup

Why it works: Jerusalem artichoke and celery share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 75 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Artichoke Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the artichokes.

  2. Soak the artichokes in water with 1 tablespoon vinegar to preserve their whiteness.

  3. Slice the onion, celery, and artichokes.

Make the soup

  1. Heat the butter or fat in a saucepan.

  2. Sauté the vegetables for 10-15 minutes without browning.

  3. Pour in the stock.

  4. Boil until the vegetables are tender.

  5. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve back into the saucepan.

  6. Add the milk.

  7. Season with pepper and salt.

  8. Bring to a boil.

  9. Serve.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  4. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Jerusalem artichoke + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together140 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 flavour of the soup once cooked and sieved.
White stock or water
Cooks the vegetables until tender and forms the liquid base of the soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the finished soup.
Butter or cooking fat
Softens the vegetables and carries flavour during the initial sauté.

The step that matters

Sautéing without browning. Cooking the vegetables gently in fat softens them and draws out flavour without caramelising. Browning would add a darker colour and a different, more roasted taste to a soup meant to be pale and delicate.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

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

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