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 ↓
Artichoke Bottoms, Preserved in Cans
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare and clean the artichokes, removing all fibrous parts, and rub them with lemon.
Parboil the artichokes for 5 minutes, then immerse them in cold water.
Make the sauce
In a saucepan, combine melted butter and flour, mixing well.
Add boiling water to the mixture, stirring until it boils.
Add the juice of 3 lemons and let it boil slowly for 20 minutes.
Add the artichokes and cover the saucepan, cooking slowly for 15 minutes.
Remove from heat and let cool.
Can and process
Dip each artichoke in lukewarm water, dry on a napkin, and place in quart tin cans.
Cover the artichokes with cold boiled water, slightly salted, and add the juice of 2 lemons to each can.
Seal the cover and boil in a hot water bath for 1.5 hours.
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.
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Artichoke + lemontop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together636 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Artichoke + flourtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together466 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Artichoke + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together893 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
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Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Butter and flour 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
What each ingredient does
- Artichokes
- Form the main body of the dish, cooked until tender in the sauce and liquid.
- Melted butter
- Adds fat and richness to the sauce, carrying flavour through the dish.
- Flour
- Thickens the butter and water mixture into a smooth sauce.
- Juice of 3 lemons
- Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and helps keep the artichokes pale.
The step that matters
Sealing and hot water bath processing. Canned low-acid foods must be sealed well and fully heat-processed to prevent spoilage by harmful microbes. Artichokes are low in acid, so the added lemon juice and the full processing time both matter for safety. Follow the recorded time closely.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (artichoke, butter, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Avocadofits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Limefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against artichoke, butter, flour. 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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