Name: Artichoak Bottoms with Forcemeat
Ingredients: 6 artichoke bottoms, boiled and cleaned; 1 yolk of egg; light forcemeat; fine bread crumbs; boiling lard; fried parsley (for garnish)

Why it works: Artichoke and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 524 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Artichoak Bottoms with Forcemeat

Ingredients

Directions

Wipe the artichoke bottoms dry and wash them with the yolk of egg.
Spread some light forcemeat over the egg and place another artichoke bottom on top.
Dip each double artichoke into the yolk of egg and sprinkle fine bread crumbs over them.
Fry the artichokes in boiling lard until they are brown.
Drain them and serve with fried parsley around or some good sauce underneath.

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.

Artichoke + parsleytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together524 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together22,662 recipes

Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
Artichoke + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together175 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,588 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,765 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).