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Artichokes, Boiled

Boiled artichokes served with hollandaise sauce or butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Artichoke and sauce work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 462 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Artichokes, Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the artichokes in several waters.

  2. Cut off the stems and trim the leaves if necessary.

Boil

  1. Put the artichokes into boiling water.

  2. Add 1 teaspoon of salt for each quart of water.

  3. If the water is hard or the artichokes are old, add a piece of baking soda the size of a Spanish nut.

  4. Keep the saucepan uncovered and boil quickly for 25 to 30 minutes until tender.

Serve

  1. Drain well and serve with Hollandaise sauce or oiled 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.

  1. Artichoke + saucetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together462 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Globe artichokes
Provide the edible base and leaves that become tender through boiling.
Baking soda (in the method)
Raises the water's alkalinity, which can help keep hard water or older artichokes more tender.
Hollandaise sauce
Adds richness and fat that complements the mild, slightly bitter artichoke flavor.

The step that matters

Keep the saucepan uncovered and boil quickly. An uncovered pan lets volatile sulfur compounds escape, helping keep the artichokes a bright green. A quick, steady boil keeps the water circulating so the artichokes cook evenly until tender.

“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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