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Artichoke Soup

A creamy soup made with Jerusalem artichokes, onions, celery, stock, milk, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 and soak them in a basin of water with 1 tablespoon vinegar to keep them white while peeling.

  2. Slice the onions, celery, and artichokes.

Cook

  1. Heat the butter in a saucepan and sauté the vegetables for 10-15 minutes without browning.

  2. Pour in the stock and boil until the vegetables are tender.

  3. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve back into the saucepan.

Finish

  1. Add the milk and seasoning, bring to a boil, and 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 starchy thickening of the soup as they cook and break down.
Butter
Carries the flavour of the vegetables and gives the soup a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness to the finished soup.
Onions
Build a sweet, savoury base flavour as they soften in the butter.

The step that matters

Sautéing without browning. Cooking the vegetables gently in butter softens them and builds flavour without caramelising them. Browning would add bitter, toasted notes that clash with the delicate artichoke flavour.

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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