Name: Stewed Cardoons
Ingredients: Cardoons; Stock; Béchamel sauce; Fried bread; Watercress

Why it works: Cardoon and watercress share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Stewed Cardoons

Ingredients

Directions

Cut the cardoons into pieces and remove the outer skin.
Wash and scald the cardoons.
Place them in a saucepan and add enough stock to cover.
Boil until three-quarters cooked and the liquid is almost reduced.
Add a small amount of béchamel sauce and stew gently until fully cooked.
Serve with pieces of fried bread and stewed watercress arranged around the dish, with the cardoons in the center.

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.

Cardoon + watercresstop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Cardoon + breadtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Bread + watercresstop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together307 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Cardoon + saucetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together48 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + watercresstop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together295 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).